LIBRARY 


University  of  California. 


Gl  FT    OF 


Class 


^ 


COMMONWEAIyTH   OF   PENNSYI^VANIA 


DEPARTMENT  OF  AGRICULTURE. 


BULLETIN  No.  71 


THE  CONSOLIDATION  OF  COllITRy  SCHOOLS, 


AND  THE 


Transporting  of  the  Scholars  by  Use  of  Vans. 


BY 


H,  H.  LoNGSDORF,  A.  M.,  M.  D. 


PUBLISHED  BY  DIRECTION  OF  THE  SECRETARY 


IQOl. 


WM.  STANLEY  RAY, 

STATE   PRINTER   OF   PENNSYLVANIA. 
1901. 


COMMONWEAI^TH  OF   PENNSYI^VANIA. 


DEPARTMENT  OF  AGRICULTURE. 


BULLETIN  No.  71 


THE  CONSOLIDATIOH  OF  COUNTRY  SCHOOLS, 


AND  THE 


Transporting  of  the  Scholars  by  Use  of  Vans. 


BY 


H.  H.  LoNGSDORF,  A.  M.,  M.  D. 


f^-C 


<    liNiVtRSnv 

•  or 


PUBLISHED  BY  DIRECTION  OF  THE  SECRETARY. 


IQOl. 


WM.  STANLEY  RAY, 

STATE   PRINTER   OF   PENNSYLVANIA. 
1901. 


"^7 


'The  riches  of  a  Commonwealth 

Are  free,  strong  minds  and  hearts  of  health, 

And,  more  to  her  than  gold  or  grain, 

The  cunning  hand  and  cultured  brain." 

— WHITTIER. 


(2) 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 


Page. 

Preface, 5 

Letter  of  Transmittal,  9 

The  Consolidation  of  Schools  in  the  Rural  Districts  of  Pennsylvania, 11 

Mutual  interest  of  city  and  country,   12 

Changes  in  the  rural  life  of  Pennsylvania,  13 

Persons  engaged  in  gainful  occupations  by  selected  classes,  1820 

and  1840,   14 

Number  and  per  cent,  of  persons  of  each  class  of  occupations,  by 

sex,  1870,  1880  and  1890,  15 

•*  The  Country  School  does  not  Answer  the  Several  Wants,  17 

The   small   school,    18 

The  lack  of  trained  teachers  in  the  country,  19 

•Consolidation  an  aid  to  advancement  through  classification,  20 

„  Consolidation  the  only  method  to  have  a  high  school,   21 

Selected  courses  in  education  for  country  students,   22 

A  course  of  study  adapted  to  a  consolidated  country  school,   24 

-Social  influence  of  a  central  consolidated  school,  25 

Consolidation  of  Rural  Schools  in  Operation  in  New  England  States  and 

Portions  of  Ohio,    28 

Some  details  of  the  progress  of  consolidation  in  Massachusetts, 28 

Conveyance  of  the  children,   30 

Subordinate  .advantages, 32 

Extracts  from  Board  of  Education,  Massachusetts,  33 

Aggregate  cost  of  conveyance,    36 

Summary  from  private  letters  received,    37 

Consolidation   in   Connecticut,    38 

Town  management  is  economical,   38 

Consolidation    in    New    Hampshire,    40 

The  Kingsville  system  of  education,   Ohio,    42 

Results  of  personal  inspection  of  consolidated  schools  in  Gustavus 

township,  Ohio,  47 

Studies  pursued  in  high  school,  48 

Special  courses  of  stmiy,  49 

Mail  delivery, .•  49 

Gains  under  the  system, 50 

Extension  of  consolidation,  51 

Experiments  Made  in  Consolidation  in  Pennsylvania, 52 

Definite  legislation 52 

Transportation  of  pupils,  53 

Necessary  legislation,  55 

Recapitulation, 56 

(3) 


181158 


Tbe  School  Garden  an  Adjunct  of  Rural  Education,  56 

I        Educational  value  of  a  school  garden,   59 

Township  school  libraries,    60 

The  Sloyd  system  of  education,    61 

Industrial  education,    61 

Physical  culture, 62 

CSpecial  occasions   in   school    life,    : 62 

(  Some  Outgrowths  of  a  well  Organized  Central  School  not  directly  Educa- 
tional,    63 

Good  roads, ^ 63 

\  Local   industries,    , 63 

/^ack  to  the  Jand -movements,  64 

^Denmark's  deserted  farms,   65 

Appendix. 

Abstracts  of  laws  relating  to  consolidation  and  transportation  in 

various  States, 65 

Acts  relative  lo  Pennsylvania,  69 

Course  of  Study  of  Gustavus  Public  Schools,  72 

Primary  department,   72 

Grammar  department,   73 

High  school  department, 74 

Syllabus  of  Work  by  Grades,  75 

Special   Courses  of   Study,    81 

Geography,   81 

Physiology,     82 

Nature  work  for  elementary  grades,    85 

Nature  work  for  all  grades, 88 

Text  books  used,   89 


PREI'ACB. 


L 


Harrisburg,  Pa.,  December  8, 1900. 

The  following  Bulletin  upon  ^^The  Consolidation  of  Country  Schools 
and  the  Transportation  of  the  Scholars  by  Use  of  Vans,"  was  pre- 
pared by  H.  H.  Longsdorf,  M.  D.,  of  Dickinson,  Cumberland  county, 
Pa.  The  investigation  was  undertaken  at  the  instance  of  this  De- 
partment for  the  purpose  of  securing  accurate  data  showing  the 
methods  and  expense  involved  in  the  centralization  of  our  public 
schools  to  a  centrally  located  graded  school,  including  the  practica- 
bility of  taking  the  scholars  to  and  from  the  central  school  in  com- 
fortable conveyances.  If  the  country  schools  cannot  be  thus  cen- 
tralized, then  there  is  no  possibility  for  their  ever  attaining  the 
rank  now  enjoyed  by  town  and  city  schools,  and  country  people  have 
no  hope  of  ever  being  able  to  give  their  children  the  advantages  in 
education  to  which  they  are  entitled,  unless  they  remove  t'hem  from 
the  country  and  send  them  into  the  towns. 

If,  on  the  other  hand,  centralization  is  feasible,  then  a  new  era 
is  begun  in  country  life,  and  the  question  of  the  proper  education  of 
country  children  is  completely  solved. 

The  inadequate  character  of  the  present  system  and  the  impossi- 
bility of  its  meeting  the  needs  of  country  people,  was  discussed  by  me 
in  a  paper  read  before  the  State  Teachers'  Association,  at  its  meeting 
in  Williamsport  last  July,  which  shows  the  situation  and  expresses 
my  views  so  exactly  that  I  take  the  liberty  of  quoting  from  the 
paper  in  this  preface.     In  that  paper  I  state: 

^'That  if  the  country  school  is  to  fulfill  its  mission  to  its  community 
as  the  hand-maid  of  agriculture,  it  must  be  different  from  the  town 
school.  It  must  be  a  school  adapted  to  the  needs  of  the  community 
in  which  it  is.  It  must  he  an  adaption  of  education  to  need. 
The  farmer's  needs  are  varied,  most  important  and  urgent.  To  meet 
them  he  must  have  the  advantage  of  the  best  school;  and  the  best 
school  for  him  is  the  one  that  teaches  him  the  things  that  he  needs 
to  know. 

''What  does  he  need  to  know?  What  are  the  farmer's  educational 
needs?  As  a  man  and  a  citizens  his  needs  are  precisely  the  same  as 
those  of  other  men  and  other  citizens — fully  as  great;  no  less.  He 
must  be  taught  the  things  that  other  men  and  other  citizens  find  it 
necessary  to  know — to  read,  to  write,  to  compute.  The  studies  to 
meet  these  needs  are  well  defined,  and  for  the  most  part,  are  fairly 

(5) 


6 

taught.  As  an  agriculturist,  his  needs  have  not  been  so  well  under- 
stood; they  are  special.  He  is  dealing  with  the  natural  world.  His 
enjoyment  and  his  livelihood  depend  upon  his  understanding  the 
laws  tfiat  control  in  the  natural  world.  He  must,  therefore,  know 
nature.  The  studies  adapted  to  his  needs  in  this  respect  can 
scarcely  be  said  to  be  taught  at  all  in  the  country  school. 

"I  have  said  that  he  deals  with  natural  things.  Obviously,  there- 
fore, he  ought  to  be  instructed  in  these  things.  'Nature  Study' 
should  form  part  of  the  course  in  all  country  schools,  if  they  are  to 
meet  the  educational  needs  of  the  people  who  surround  them — the 
farming  people  of  the  State. 

''Can  this  be  done?  Yes.  Can  it  be  done  under  our  present 
system?  No.  It  is  impossible  to  giv  jy/oper  trainin'j  in  the  <  aunt  y 
schools  under  existing  methods.      Why? 

"1st.  For  lack  of  time. 

"To  a  letter  of  inquiry,  as  to  the  number  of  classes  the  teachers  hear 
each  day,  addressed  to  1,500  teachers  in  the  country  schools  of  Penn- 
sylvania, selecting  one  from  each  township,  I  received  491  replies,  rep- 
resenting 61  counties.  Of  this  number  fifty-two  teachers  heard  30 
classes;  nine,  31;  twenty -two,  32;  six,  33;  eleven,  34;  ten,  35;  two,  36; 
two,  37;  two,  38;  two,  40;  one,  45 — a  summary  of  the  figures  showing 
that  119  teachers  of  the  491  reporting  have  daily  an  average  of  32 
classes,  and  the  general  average  for  the  whole  491  being  27  classes 
per  day.     The  average  number  of  scholars  in  these  schools  is  33. 

"Counting  the  school  day  at  five  and  one-half  hours,  being  from 
9  to  12  and  1  to  4,  with  two  intermissions  of  fifteen  minutes  each, 
there  will  he  330  minutes  for  actual  teaching  work.  Those  having 
thirty-two  classes  per  day  will  have  ten  minutes  to  a  class,  and 
taking  the  general  average  of  twenty-seven  classes  each  day,  it 
will  give  but  twelve  minutes  to  a  class.  This  includes  the  time  lost, 
in  scholars  leaving  and  returning  to  their  seats,  at  each  recitation. 
Two  minutes  will  be  consumed  in  this,  leaving  ten  minutes  in  the 
one  case  and  eight  minutes  in  the  other. 

"No  teacher  can  do  justice  to  himself  or  to  his  scholars  under  such 
conditions.  No  teacher,  no  matter  how  learned  or  skillful,  can,  under 
the  present  system,  properly  instruct  pupils  in  the  time  at  his  dis- 
posal. And  yet  in  the  country  districts  throughout  Pennsylvania, 
teachers  are  compelled,  year  after  year,  to  attempt  this  impossible 
task.  If  it  is  impossible  under  the  present  conditions,  with  only  the 
ordinary  and  limited  number  of  studies  at  present  prescribed,  how 
will  it  be  possible  when  such  additional  studies  are  introduced  as  are 
necessary,  in  order  that  the  schools  be  brought  to  meet  the  require 
ments  of  the  farmers'  needs,  unless  there  is  first  a  radical  change  in 
the  system  upon  which  country  schools  are  now  organized.  It  is 
impossible — physically  impossible.  The  system  must  first  be  changed. 


"2d.  Proper  training,  suited  to  the  farmers'  needs,  cannot  be  given 
under  'existing  methods,  for  another  reason:  Lack  of  qualified  teach- 
ers. This  defect,  however,  can  soon  be  remedied  if  the  system  is 
changed,  but  it  can  never  be  remedied  if  the  system  is  continued. 
The  reason  is  clear,  and  it  is  conclusive.  Teachers  qualified  to  give 
instruction  in  the  branches  needed  in  the  country  schools  will  not 
take  a  country  school  because  of  the  meagre  salary  that  these  schools 
pay,  but  will  go  to  the  town  and  city  schools  where  there  is  less 
exacting  work,  greater  conveniences,  and  two  or  three  times  the 
salary  which  the  country  offers.  They  will  go  where  their  attain- 
ments are  appreciated  and  adequately  paid.  I  repeat,  therefore, 
that  it  is  impossible,  and  will  continue  to  be  impossible,  to  give  the 
needed  instruction  in  our  country  schools  under  existing  methods,  for 
lack  of  qualified  teachers. 

"It  is  impossible  also,  for  a  third  reason:  Lack  of  a  supply  of 
proper  apparatus  in  the  country  schools.  The  amount  of  school 
apparatus  necessary  in  order  to  give  the  kind  of  instruction  the 
farmers  need  is  much  larger  than  the  ordinary  school  can  afford  to 
procure.  Libraries,  maps,  charts,  models,  natural  history  collec- 
tions, school  gardens,  green  houses,  etc.,  are  all  expensive,  and  a  full 
equipment  in  these  would  involve  the  expenditure  of  a  much  larger 
sum  than  the  country  school,  as  now  organized,  can  afford,  and 
yet  these  are  necessary  adjuncts  in  the  securing  of  a  well-rounded 
education  to  fit  a  boy  or  girl  for  country  life.  What  is  the  remedy 
for  these  serious  defects  in  our  present  system? 

"1st.  The  consolidation  of  the  present  schools^  and  the  establish- 
ment of  graded  schools  in  the  country. 

"Employ,  if  you  will,  the  same  teachers,  but  bring  two  or  three  or 
four  of  them  together  in  a  single  building.  This  will  reduce  the 
number  of  classes  a  day  to  each  teacher,  and  give  them  time  to  attend 
to  the  educational  needs  of  the  scholars.  It  will  enable  school  dis- 
tricts to  pay  better  salaries  to  the  best  teachers  who  have  charge  of 
the  higher  grades.  It  will  make  it  possible  to  collect  proper  school 
appliances  for  use  in  the  several  classes,  and  avoid  the  duplication 
of  apparatus,  which  the  system  of  schools  separated  from  each  other 
necessarily  involves.  How  can  this  be  done?  Only  one  change  is 
necessary.  What  is  it?  Transportation.  The  practicability  of 
transporting  scholars  to  and  from  these  graded  schools  is  no  longer 
an  experiment;  it  is  done,  and  is  successfully  done  wherever  judici- 
ously tried.-' 

The  solution,  therefore,  of  the  whole  problem  of  rural  education 
lies,  in  that  of  the  practicability  of  the  transportation  system.  The 
investigation  of  Dr.  Longsdorf  shows  that  this  is  done  in  numerous 
places  and  under  ordinary  conditions,  and  it  is  hoped  that  educators, 
agricultural  people,  school  directors  and  superintendents  will  give 


careful  reading  to  this  Bulletin  and  thoughtfully  ask  themselves  the 
question,  "Why  do  we  not  adopt  this  method  in  our  district?" 

No  more  important  question  has  arisen  in  our  modern  civilization 
than  this  one,  of  the  education  of  country  people,  for  upon  their 
proper  training  their  future  prosperity  and  that  of  this  nation  will 
depend. 

JOHN  HAMILTON, 
Secretary  of  Agriculture. 


LETTER  OF  TRANSMITTAL. 


Dickinson,  Cumberland  Co.,  Pa.,  December  1,  1900. 
Hon.  John  Hamilton,  Secretary  of  Agriculture,  Harrisburg,  Pa.: 

Dear  Sir:  I  have  the  honor  herewith  to  transmit  the  Bulletin  on 
"Consolidation  of  Schools  in  the  Rural  Districts  of  Pennsylvania," 
which  some  time  since  you  requested  me  to  prepare. 

In  the  study  of  the  several  phases  of  the  subject,  I  found  that  its 
roots  struck  deeper  than  at  first  appeared;  and  also  that  much  mis- 
conception of  the  objects  aimed  at,  existed  in  the  class  such  a  mea- 
sure is  intended  most  to  benefit. 

With  the  view  of  reaching  this  class  and  rousing  popular  interest, 
I  have  endeavored  to  present  the  subject  in  the  most  familiar  manner, 
without  regard  to  literary  form,  using  preferably  the  comparative 
method. 

The  most  valuable  evidence  as  to  the  practical  workings  of  con- 
solidation, was  obtained  "on  the  ground,"  in  Northwestern  Ohio  and 
portions  of  New  England.  Differences  varying  with  the  conditions 
of  the  country  and  nature  of  the  laws,  exist  in  the  different  sections 
where  the  plan  has  had  practical  demonstration,  but  no  backward 
movement  has  been  taken  and  it  is  widely  spreading  over  many  west- 
ern States. 

Thanks  are  due  many  correspondents  in  the  New  England  and 
many  of  the  western  States,  for  information  in  regard  to  past  and 
present  conditioni  of  rural  schools,  for  suggestions  as  to  proper 
course  of  study  for  such  schools;  to  many  persons  in  this  State  in- 
terested in  rural  education;  to  the  State  School  Departments  of 
Pennsylvania,  Massachusetts,  Connecticut,  Ehode  Island,  New 
Hampshire  and  Ohio,  for  information  regarding  special  legislation 
bearing  upon  consolidation;  to  Henry  Clinton  Clapp,  chairman  of 
Massachusetts  Horticultural  Society,  with  reference  to  school  gar- 
dens;  to  Roycrofters  in  regard  to  hand  printing,  and  to  others. 

Hoping  that  this  Bulletin  may  prove  useful  in  furthering  an  object 
which  carries  with  it  great  possibilities  in  useful  and  practical  edu- 
cation, I  am, 

Very  respectfully, 

H.H.  LONGSDORF. 


(9) 


(10) 


THE  CONSOLIDATION  OF  COUNTRY  SCHOOLS 


AND  THE 


Transporting  of  the  Scholars  by  Use  of  Vans. 


THE  CONSOLIDATION  OF  SCHOOLS  IN  THE  RUKAL  DIS- 
TKICTS  OF  PENNSYLVANIA. 


Before  entering  apon  the  discussion  of  consolidation  as  a  measure 
for  the  advancement  of  the  schools  in  the  rural  districts  of  this 
State,  it  may  be  wise  to  glance  at  some  of  the  underlying  and  de- 
pendent questions  connected  with  it. 

The  country  school  problem  is  not  wholly  an  educational  prob- 
lem in  the  sense  in  which  the  term  is  ordinarily  used.  It  comprises 
many  subjects  besides  the  quality  of  text-books  or  teachers — of 
method  and  salary,  and  other  vital  matters.  It  is  not — putting 
it  on  a  wider  basis — ^a  question  of  expediency,  utility  or  of  individual 
preference  or  convenience,  though  these  enter  into  it.  It  is  in  fact 
a  manj'-sided  problem,  including  factors  of  wide-reaching  value,  and 
containing  many  unknown  quantities  relating  to  sociologic  and  eco- 
nomic science. 

Thus,  from  the  very  outset,  we  have  a  divergence  from  the  ordinary 
aspect  of  school  questions.  In  the  city,  there  is  a  fixity  of  condi- 
tions which  reflects  itself  in  the  well-equipped  school  and  the  in- 
dependent methods  by  which  it  is  conducted.  The  aggregation  of 
wealth  and  population,  give  rise  to  certain  standards  and  authorities, 
official  and  non-official,  which  give,  to  an  extent,  security  and  sta- 
bility to  the  social  structure  of  which  the  school  is  a  part. 

Formerly,  a  somewhat  similar  state  of  things  prevailed  in  the 
country.  The  rural  population  was  stable  and  prosperous,  and  any 
matter  of  public  interest  was  more  or  less  a  common  charge. 

(11) 


12 

MUTUAL  INTEREST  OF  CITY  AND  COUNTRY. 

Whatever  may  be  said  of  the  advantages  or  disadvantages  of 
the  city  or  of  the  country  up.on  the  life  and  development  of  the 
individual,  or  upon  the  prosperity  of  the  State,  it  is  certain  that  the 
welfare  of  the  one  is  bound  up  in  that  of  the  other.  The  market 
cannot  exist  without  the  producer;  the  producer  cannot  exist  with- 
out the  market.  The  machinery  is  supplied  by  the  city;  the  raw 
material  by  the  country. 

It  follows  that  in  the  educational  life  of  these  two  allies,  no  dis- 
crimination of  privilege  should  be  shown.  Their  interests  being 
mutual,  their  duties  should  be  reciprocal,  and  the  State  should 
have  a  care  that  her  bounties  are  adjusted  to  the  necessities  of  the 
weaker  rather  than  of  the  stronger  of  the  two. 

As  well  might  we  expect  to  see  the  stately  river  bearing  upon  its 
bosom  the  evidence  of  prosperity  and  wealth,  if  the  source  in  the 
far-away  hills  or  rocky  cliffs  were  dried  up,  as  to  look  for  the  marks 
of  a  high  civilization  in  city  or  town  where  the  just  needs  of  the 
country  are  disregarded.  On  the  contrary,  deepen  and  widen  the 
spring,  remove  obstructing  influences,  shade  it  from  the  withering 
glare  of  the  sun,  help  Mother  Nature  to  induct  into  the  tiny  channel 
other  contributary  streams  now  choked  by  neglect,  and  it  will  be- 
come from  source  to  outlet  a  beneficent  influence.  Along  its  widening 
course  "waste  places  will  be  made  glad,"  homes  will  be  reared,  in- 
dustry will  find  its  reward,  human  aspirations  will  have  their  frui- 
tion, and  these,  in  turn,  will  react  on  the  greater  centres  of  popula- 
tion and  wealth,  where  competition  and  the  enervating  effects  of 
want  on  the  one  hand  and  luxury  on  the  other  have  deadened  the 
conscience  and  lowered  humanity's  ideals. 

Pennsylvania,  with  her  long  list  of  rapid  growing  cities,  her  enor- 
mous and  fast  increasing  manufacturing  and  commercial  interests, 
cannot  afford  to  overlook  her  obligations  to  the  humblest  citizen 
within  her  borders,  either  for  self-preservation  or  upon  the  prin- 
ciple of  equity  and  justice.  Every  citizen,  however  obscure  or 
ignorant,  is  a  factor  for  or  against  the  public  weal,  and  it  is,  there- 
fore, the  plain  duty  of  the  State  to  place  within  his  reach  the  best 
means  of  making  him  a  thoughtful  and  intelligent  member  of  the 
body  politic.  It  is  a  measure  of  self-preservation,  because  the  class 
so  reached  are  the  natural  friends  of  the  theories  that  tend  to  deso- 
late society  or  to  increase  the  ranks  of  the  criminal  and  the  pauper. 
It  is  just,  because  it  extends  a  helping  hand  to  the  poor  man  who 
otherwise  would  be  doomed  to  a  vain  struggle  with  evil  fortune. 

It  is  highly  desirable  that  the  country  school  should  be  able 
to  impress  upon  its  outflow,  character  and  intelligence.  If  prop- 
erly administered,  it  would  form  a  counteracting  agency  in  the  vast 
and  significant  movement  of  the  strength,  ambition  and  creative 


18 

energy  of  the  country  to  the  city.  Thus,  the  permanence  and  true 
value  of  our  institutions  will  depend,  in  great  measure,  on  the  quality 
of  the  human  product  now  represented  in  the  schools  of  the  rural 
districts.     For  it  is  true  as  when  the  line  was  first  penned  that: 

"Man  is  the  nobler  growth  our  realms  su^jply." 
CHANGES  IN   THE   RURAL.  LIFE  OF   PENNSYLVANIA. 

The  changes  consequent  upon  the  rapid  growth  of  the~  nation 
as  a  whole,  have  not  left  undisturbed  the  landmarks  set  by  the 
early  settlers  of  Pennsylvania.  New  conditions  have  arisen,  new 
outlooks  opened;  the  very  thought  of  former  times  has  changed; 
whereas  the  farmer  of  twenty-five  or  forty  years  ago  regarded  him- 
self as  almo'st  a  part  of  the  agricultural  interest  of  the  State,  with 
his  ambition  bounded  by  the  desire  for  acquiring  land  and  farm 
improvements,  he  now  scarcely  thinks  it  desirable,  even  if  it  were 
possible,  in  many  cases,  sharing  and  sympathizing  with  the  discon- 
tent that  possesses  the  younger  members  of  his  household. 

Around  the  farm,  as  it  then  existed,  clustered  many  minor  interests. 
Mechanics,  who  before  the  advent  of  machinery,  found  a  livelihood 
in  making  and  repairing  farm  implements;  laborers  who  helped  to  till 
the  soil — local  industries  that  drew  vitality  from  the  generous  sur- 
roundings and  sometimes  amassed  modest  fortunes — various 
branches  of  domestic  service;  these,  with  others,  felt  the  impulse 
that  came  from  the  pros])erous  farm. 

The  farmer  and  the  class  identified  with  him  understood  the  worth 
of  an  education,  a  fact  better  attested  by  the  long  lists  of  eminent 
and  successful  men  reared  in  the  country  of  that  period,  who  are 
now  occupying  positions  of  prominence  in  every  department  where 
learning  and  mental  sagacity  count.  The  school  was  well  cared  for 
and  its  advantages  prized.  The  sturdy  country  boy  and  girl  "meant 
business"  when  they  entered  the  school  room  in  the  fall.  They  knew 
their  time  for  education  was  limited  and,  as  a  rule,  made  the  most 
of  it,  and  studied  and  thought  with  a  force  and  originality  of 
method  that  easily  broke  down  many  of  the  obstacles  that  doubt- 
less existed.  The  age  of  the  pupils  was  greater  and  they  brought  a 
maturity  of  thought  to  their  work  which,  under  less  stimulative  con- 
ditions, does  not  now  exist.  With  this,  there  was  the  daily  train- 
ing in  application  and  persistence  nowhere  so  well  impressed  as  on  a 
well-managed  farm  or  busy  workshop. 

The  changes  that  have  been  wrought  in  the  aspect  of  the  rural 
community  have  come  from  causes  outside  of  the  sphere  of  farm 
industries.  The  lowered  price  of  land  and  farm  products  accounts 
for  them  in  part.  Otheis  bearing  upon  it,  are  the  natural  develop- 
ment of  the  country  at  large,  through  increase  of  population  by  for- 
eign immigration  and  settlement  of  the  vast  areas  of  the  west,  other- 


14 

wise  increase  of  occupations  for  females,  liberation  of  slave  labor. 
Chief  among  the  causes  for  the  abstraction  of  the  more  ambitious 
element  among  the  youth  of  the  rural  districts  is  the  differentiation 
of  occupation  which  is  constantly  being  intensified.  Out  of  this  has 
grown  a  demand  for  specialized  knowledge  and  skilled  labor  in 
every  department  of  productive  energy,  whether  of  physical  or  intel- 
lectual output,  a  demand  that  must  be  met  by  educational  devices 
adapted  to  it. 

A  more  satisfactory  and  accurate  idea  of  the  changes  that  have 
afl'ected  the  rural  population  of  Pennsylvania  and  some  other  agri- 
cultural States  in  the  last  several  decades,  can  be  obtained  by  a  brief 
survey  of  the  census  returns  relating  to  occupation. — (From  Bulletin 
No.  11,  U.  S.  Dept.  of  Labor.) 


PERSONS  ENGAGED  IN  GAINFUL  OCCUPATIONS  BY  SELECTED  CLASSES, 

1820. 


Classes    of    Occupations.  i     Persons. 


Agriculture 2,070, 64e 

Commerce 72, 493 

Manufactures j  349, 5C6 

Total,     !  2,492, 645 


The  total  in  the  above  table  must  not  be  taken  as  representing  all 
the  persons  engaged  in  remunerative  labor,  the  inquiry  being  limited 
to  the  number  engaged  in  these  three  classes. 

In  the  census  of  1840,  the  enumeration  was  more  specific,  resulting 
as  follows: 

PERSONS  ENGAGED  IN  GAINFUL  OCCUPATIONS  BY  SELECTED 

CLASSES,  1840. 


Classes    of    Occupations. 


Mining 

Agriculture,     

Commerce,     

Manufactures  and  trades 

Navigation  of  the  ocean,    , 

Navigation  of  canals,    lakes  and  rivers, 
Learned   professions   and   engineers,    ... 

Total,     


15,210 
3,719,951 
117.607 
791,739 
56.021 
33.076 
65,255 


4,1 


The  total  of  the  seven  classes  here  represented,  does  not  include 
servants  and  the  large  number  of  persons  engaged  in  other  do- 


15 

mestic  and  personal  services,  g()^ (.rnmental  officials,  clerks  and  em- 
ployes. In  1850,  the  inquiry  was  limited  to  free  males  over  fifteen 
years  of  age,  and  the  printed  results  comprehended  simply  a  list  of 
323  occupation  designations,  not  classified  according  to  number  en- 
gaged in  each.  In  1860,  the  specific  occupations  were  given  in  the 
census  report  for  all  free  persons  over  fifteen  years  of  age,  without 
distinction  as  to  sex.  The  list  comprised  584  items.  In  ISfO^OdCU- 
pations  were  classified  under  four  general  heads,  namely,  agricul- 
ture, professional  and  personal  services,  trade  and  transportation, 
and  manufactures  and  mechanical  and  mining  industries,  comprising 
338  occupation  designations.  This  presentation  of  occupation  com- 
prehended all  persons  ten  years  of  age  or  over,  sub-divided  according 
to  sex,  their  age-periods  and,  for  those  of  foreign  birth,  according  to 
twelve  principal  nationalities. 

In  1890,  the  same  general  plan  of  classifying  occupations  was  ob- 
served as  in  1870  and  1880,  but  the  sub-division  according  to  sex, 
age-periods  and  nationalities  of  the  foreign  element  was  in  1890, 
very  much  extended  and  many  other  important  details  added. 


NUMBER  AND  PER  CENT.  OF  PERSONS  TEN  YEARS  OF  AGE  OR  OVER  IN 
EACH  CLASS  OP  OCCUPATIONS,  BY  SEX,  1870,  1880,  AND  1890. 


Number. 

Per    Cent 

Census    Years    and    Classes    of 
Occupation. 

1 

•3 

1 

1 

B 

1870. 
Agriculture,   fisheries  and  min- 

5,744,314 

278.841 
1,338,6(>3 
1,209,571 

2,098,^46 

397,049 
92,257 

973,157 
19,828 

353,997 

6,141,363 

371,098 

2,311,820 

1.229,399 

2,452,243 

53.84 
2.61 
12.55 
11.34 

19.66 

21.62 
5.02 

53.00 
1.08 

19.28 

49  11 

2  97 

Domestic    and   personal    service, 

Trade  and  transportation,    

Manufacturing-     and      mechan- 

18.48 
9.83 

19.61 

Total      

10,669,635 

1,836,288 

12,505.923 

100.00 

lOO.OO 

lOO.OO 

1880. 
Agriculture,    fisheries  and  min- 
ing      

7,409,970 

425,947 

2,321,937 

1,803,629 

2,783,459 

594,651 

177,255 

1,181,506 

62,852 

630,890 

8.004,624 

603,202 

3,503,443 

1.866,481 

3,414,349 

50.25 
2.89 
15.75 
12.23 

18.88 

22.46 
6.70 

44.63 
2.38 

23.83 

46.03 
3.47 
20.14 
10.73 

19.63 

Domestic   and  personal    service, 

Trade    and    transportation 

Manufacturing     and      mechan- 
ical   industries        

Total 

14,744,942 

2,647,157 

17,392,099 

100. 00 

100.00 

100.00 

1S90. 
Agriculture,    fisheries  and  min- 
ing,      

8,333,813 

632  646 

2.692,879 

3,097,701 

'4,064,051 

679.523 

311,687 

1.667,698 

228,421 

1,027,242 

9,013,336 

944,333 

4,360,577 

3,326,122 

5,091,293 

44.28 
3.36 
14.31 
16.46 

21.59 

17.36 
7.96 

42.60 
5.84 

26.24 

39.65 
4.15 
19.18 
14.63 

22.39 

Domestic    and    personal   service, 

Trade   and   transportation 

Manufacturing     and      mechan- 
ical   industries 

Total 

18,821,090 

3,914,571 

22,735,661 

lOO.OO 

100.00 

100.00 

16 

According  to  the  above  figures,  persons  engaged  in  agriculture 
and  mining,  constituted  very  nearly  one-half  (49.11  per  cent.)  of  the 
whole  number  of  persons  occupied  in  1870,  and  less  than  two-fifths 
(39.65  per  cent.)  in  1890.  More  than  two-thirds  of  this  loss  has  oc- 
curred between  1880  and  1890.  There  has  been,  on  the  other  hand, 
an  increase  in  the  proportion  of  persons  engaged  in  each  of  the  other 
great  classes  in  1890  as  compared  with  1870,  the  largest  increases 
being  shown  for  persons  engaged  in  trade  and  transportation  and  in 
manufacturing  and  mechanical  industries.  In  1870,  persons  en- 
gaged in  agriculture,  fisheries  and  mining  constituted  15.93  per  cent, 
of  the  total  population,  and  but  14.39  per  cent,  in  1890.  The  per- 
centages of  persons  engaged  in  agriculture  only,  were  15.43  in  1870, 
and  13.68  in  1890.  These  figures  show  a  steady  decline  in  the  pro- 
portion of  persons  engaged  in  agricultural  pursuits,  and  the  rela- 
tively decreasing  importance  of  agriculture  as  a  means  of  liveli- 
hood. 

If  the  census  tables  of  the  last  three  periods  could  be  further 
quoted,  taking  the  States  and  Territories  individually,  a  still  more 
definite  idea  could  be  obtained  as  to  the  increase  of  manufacturing 
and  mechanical  pursuits  and  the  decline  of  agricultural  occupations 
in  the  North  Atlantic  States.  In  1890,  only  a  little  more  than  6  per 
cent,  of  the  total  population  in  Pennsylvania  was  engaged  in  agri- 
cultural pursuits. 

Further  analysis  of  the  tables  of  the  last  two  periods  shows  a 
relatively  larger  increase  of  female  workers  over  male  workers. 
Division  of  classes  of  workers  into  groups  show  a  rise  in  occupation 
in  Pennsylvania.  A  considerable  increase  of  women  in  professional 
service  and  in  manufacturing  and  mechanical  industries  has  occurred, 
reaching  nearly  7  per  cent,  in  1890. 

It  must  be  remembered  that  the  above  quotations  are  of  th^* 
simplest  form.  They  are  given  as  indicative  of  the  trend  of  occu 
pations  and  the  increase  of  wage-earners. 

Deductions  from  this  partial  presentation  of  industrial  progress 
in  recent  years  are: 

1.  The  scale  of  labor  has  risen,  there  being  a  perceptible  increase 
in  the  proportion  of  persons  engaged  in  the  higher  grades  of  work  in 
1890  as  compared  with  conditions  twenty  years  earlier. 

2.  The  population  in  the  rural  districts  is  in  a  transitional  state, 
part  of  it  moving  toward  the  centralized  industries  in  the  cities  and 
manufacturing  centres.  It  is  there  dispersed  according  to  ability, 
knowledge  and  taste.  Another  part  remains  amid  the  less  affluent 
and  alluring  surroundings,  to  utilize  the  agricultural  possibilities 
in  the  most  economical  and  practical  way,  keeping  up,  to  some  extent, 
the  old-time  traditions,  beautifying  the  country,  opening  up  new 
avenues  of  industry  and  cultivating  in  patience  and  hope  the  growth 


17 

of  future  expectation,  thus  serving  as  a  counterpoise  to  the  tendency 
to  desert  the  country. 

3.  Tke  city -ward  tendency*  is  not  a  temporary  movemenU  It  is 
steadily  increasing  and  will  go  on  if  some  preventive  remedy  is  not 
appUtd^  liiitil  deterioration  not  only  of  material  interests,  but  of  the 
race  sets  in.  Poverty,  illiteracy  and  a  host  of  evils  that  accompanies 
the  loss  of  motive  to  high  living,  will  follow  in  the  train  of  neglected 
rural  interests.     Examples  are  not  wanting  of  these  effects. 

The  mountain  whites  of  the  South  all'ord  an  illustration  of  the 
results  of  such  a  tendency  operating  through  several  generations. 
The  original  stock  from  which  they  came  was  good,  but  living  re- 
mote from  civilization  and  out  of  the  current  of  modern  progress, 
they  have  lapsed  back  into  a  condition  of  semi-barbarism.  What 
their  influence  is  as  against  order  and  governmental  safeguards,  the 
events  in  Tennessee  and  Kentucky  within  the  last  year  or  two  go  to 
show.  Other  instances  of  a  like  nature  abound  in  the  detached  com- 
munities of  the  older  and  newer  States.  Pennsylvania,  in  the  ten 
years  between  1880  and  1890,  shows  a  loss  of  population  in  919 
townships.  No  accurate  estimate  of  the  loss  up  to  the  date  of  the 
twelfth  census  can  be  given,  but  from  the  growth  of  the  cities  in 
that  period  and  the  decline  of  the  smaller  industries  of  the  rural  dis- 
tricts, a  fairly  just  opinion  can  be  formed  that  the  adverse  influence 
upon  the  country  has  not  diminished. 

The  most  powerful  factor  in  opposing  the  tendency  to  the  cities 
is  education.  From  the  educational  side  must  come  a  counter  move- 
ment, strong  enough  to  offset  in  some  degree  the  discontent  of  the 
farmer  and  the  necessities  of  the  laboring  class.  Along  with  these 
must  be  met  a  class  of  interests  not  properly  of  a  material  sort.  The 
desire  for  a  higher  education  and  for  opportunities  leading  into  the 
wide  field  of  asthetic  and  artistic  employment  and  of  the  gratifica- 
tion of  strong  individual  tastes,  has  grown  until  it  has  created  a 
demand  for  specific  elementary  training,  in  the  common  school,  as 
insistently  urgent  as  the  knowledge  of  the  three  R's. 

THE  COUNTRY  SCHOOL  AS  IT  EXISTS  DOES  NOT  ANSWER 
THESE  SEVERAL  WANTS. 


We  have  traced  the  steady  increase  of  influence  adverse  to  the  rural 
population.  We  have  seen  that  they  are  continuing  in  an  ever-pro- 
gressing ratio.  The  Pennsylvania  of  to-day  is  not  what  it  was  in 
the  era  when  the  ''Great  Commoner"  championed  the  common  school 
system  so  intimately  linked  with  his  name,  The  system  which  has 
been  found  so  well  adapted  to  the  conditions  of  the  past  has  been 
outgrown  and  no  longer  in  harmony  with  the  spirit  of  the  age,  be- 
2 


18 

cause  elastic  as  it  is,  it  does  not  furnish  "equal  opportunities  and 
enlightenment  for  all."  Our  practical  forefathers  devised  the  school 
machinery  so  that  it  might  reach  to  the  smallest  and  remotest  nook 
where  a  ward  of  the  State  could  take  up  its  abode.  The  corner  stone 
of  the  structure  they  built  up  in  the  hope  of  securing  the  widest 
liberty  of  thought  and  action  for  the  people  they  sought  to  serve, 
was  ''equal  rights  to  all."  It  may  be  said,  the  system  as  founded 
still  stands,  but  if  it  no  longer  subserves  its  original  purpose,  we 
and  not  they  must  he  held  responsible. 

The  consolidation  of  the  schools  in  the  7'ural  districts  is  a  practical 
and  feasible  measure.  Premising  that  consolidation  cannot  as  yet 
be  made  universal  in  application  in  this  State,  it  is  offered  as  a 
remedy  for  existent  ills  in  the  districts  most  effected  by  the  disin- 
tegrating processes  of  later  periods,  subject  to  many  modifications 
of  place  and  circumstance. 

Let  us  examine  in  brief  detail  soifie  of  the  phases  of  educational  life 
where  it  would  apply,  and  some  of  the  benefits  accruing  from  its 
adoption. 

THE  SMALL  SCHOOL. 

A  practical  educator — and  as  wise  as  practical — has  said:  "The 
first  thing  a  good  school  wants  is  children."  A  very  small  school 
is  almost  always  a  poor  school.  There  is  absent  in  it  the  incite- 
ment of  rivalry  and  friendly  emulation  as  well  as  the  encourage- 
ment found  in  companionship.  If  each  child  pursues  a  different 
study,  as  sometimes  happens,  there  is  still  less  of  that  refiex  action 
which  lightens  the  task  and  opens  the  mind.  The  difficulty  of  or- 
ganization in  a  small  school  is  so  great  as  to  be  practically  impos- 
sible. In  the  country,  bad  roads,  distance,  stress  of  weather  and,  in 
frequent  cases,  disinclination,  serve  to  keep  the  school  even  smaller 
than  the  number  of  children  of  school  age  would  warrant.  In  a 
school  of  this  kind  there  is  frequently  great  irregularity  of  attend- 
ance and  unpunctuality  in  lessons,  failures  which  may  be  forgiven 
under  the  circumstances.  There  is  no  spring  of  enthusiasm  to  in- 
spire the  teacher  or  of  sympathy  or  interest  on  the  part  of  the 
patrons..  Nothing  can  be  done  in  a  school  of  small  size  in  the  way 
of  special  studies,  unless  the  teacher  is  phenomenally  conscientious 
and  possesses  strong  personal  qualities. 

Individual  teaching  often  brings  good  results.  It  was  the  method 
most  in  vogue  in  the  southern  States  in  the  ante-slavery  period  and 
many  accomplished  scholars  came  from  the  training  of  the  governess 
or  private  tutor  who  was  brought  there  from  the  best  northern 
schools.  But  this  was  a  wholly  different  system.  As  the  ordinary 
common  school  of  low  grade  is  found  in  the  sparsely  settled  districts, 
it  possesses  little  educative  value,  and  might  with  advantage  be 
closed  and  its  feeble  force  united  with  a  larger  one. 


19 

THE  LACK  OF  TRAINED  TEACHERS  IN  THE  COUNTRY. 

Every  years  brings  an  output  of  trained  and  presumably  eflScient 
teachers  from,  the  normal  schools  and  colleges.  They  are  full  of  en- 
thusiasm and  real  love  for  their  work.  From  contact  with  dis- 
interested and  unselfish  minds  and  from  purposeful  books  they  have 
imbibed  a  certain  nobility  of  purpose;  something  of  the  passionate 
fire  of  humanity  animates  them.  They  long  for  opportunity-to-im- 
part  something  of  the  spirit  that  burns  in  their  hearts.  But  they 
also  possess  a  share  of  self-appreciation.  They  are  conscious  of 
power  in  the  direction  of  their  elected  work  and  they  decline,  except 
under  the  compulsion  of  circumstances,  to  "bury  themselves  in  the 
country."  They  have  a  natural  ambition.  The  little  school,  with 
nothing  in  its  exterior  surroundings  or  inside  equipment  to  attract 
the  eye  or  inspire  the  mind,  is  too  insignificant  for  a  teacher  who 
hopes  to  demonstrate  the  dignity  of  his  profession.  The  cultivated 
taste  that  found  food  and  fostering  desire  in  the  hall  of  learning 
left  behind,  with  its  specific  influences  of  intellectual  riches,  cannot 
at  once  contracted  to  the  narrow  limits  enclosed  by  the  rustic  fence, 
or  not  enclosed  at  all,  overgrown  with  weeds,  destitute  of  even  the 
elements  of  the  picturesque. 

The  ordinary  graduate-teacher  is  not  a  missionary.  He  cannot 
justly  be  blamed  if  he  turns  to  the  city  or  prosperous  towns  and  takes 
a  place  in  the  better  organized  and  better  protected  school.  But 
sometimes  such  a  teacher  gets  the  country  school.  Influences  of 
local  relationship,  or  other  affiliations  with  the  community,  or  ne- 
cessity or  desire  for  experience  often  lead  to  such  a  result,  and  "just 
for  the  term,"  "till  something  better  turns  up,"  the  place  is  filled, 
sometimes  satisfactorily  filled,  but  often  quite  the  reverse.  It  cannot 
be  expected  that  a  teacher  who  is  ever  on  the  alert  for  bettering 
his  position,  who  is  perhaps  pursuing  an  upward  course  of  study  him- 
self, will  do  more  in  such  a  school  than  the  letter  of  the  law  demands. 
There  is  a  pathos  in  the  situation,  not  sentimental,  but  real  pathos. 
The  school  is  taught;  it  may  be  the  last  opportunity  for  some  gifted 
child — and  if  it  fails — if  the  school  is  ill-taugh,  the  evil,  the  far  off 
interest  ©f  misjudged  action  may  change  the  destiny  of  a  human  soul. 

Here,  then,  are  two  factors  common  enough — every  country  di- 
rector knows — the  small  school,  the  trained  but  dissatisfied  teacher. 
The  unsightly  building,  the  antiquated  and  insufficient  supplies,  the 
cultivated  but  unsympathetic  leader.  If  two  or  three  or  ten  such 
schools,  varying  a  little  as  to  quality  and  numbers,  but  all  on  the 
same  plane  could  be  united,  if  the  saving  of  salaries  and  fuel  and 
repairs  could  be  expended  on  better  equipment  and  better  house  im- 
provements, if  a  sufficient  teaching  force  could  be  supplied  in  the 
elementary  and  special  departments,  the  dissatisfied  teacher — dis- 
satisfied because  hopeless  of  achieving  good  results,  would  very  likely 


20 

blossom  out  into  a  brilliant  potentiality,  or  if  not  he  could  be  sup- 
planted by  one  of  finer  fibre. 

It  is  possible  to  keep  up  a  school  of  five,  or  eight  or  ten  pupils. 
It  is  done  e\erj  year  in  Pennsylvania.  So  long  as  the  State  con- 
tinues to  make  such  noble  provision  for  the  educational  needs  of  her 
children,  and  so  long  as  the  taxpayers  are  satisfied,  it  can  be  done. 
So  long  as  this  is  the  only  available  way  of  reaching  the  children  of 
any  district  and  supplying  them  with  such  instruction  as  can  be 
given  under  the  circumstances,  it  must  be  done.  It  is  not  claimed 
that  such  schools  do  not  accomplish  a  certain  amount  of  good. 
Probably  in  some  of  these  schools  there  will  be  one  or  more  examples 
of  that  true  American  grit  which  achieves  its  object  in  spite  of  diffi- 
culties, and  so  serve  in  coming  generations  "to  point  a  moral  or 
adorn  a  tille,*'  for  the  encouragement  of  the  poor  boy  in  the  country, 
who  like  Lincoln  and  Grant  "grows  to  fame's  high  towers"  in  the 
face  of  hindering  obstacles.  It  was  Huxley  who  said,  "it  was  worth 
a  million  dollars  to  discover  a  Faraday."  No  era  has  a  monopoly 
of  human  genius,  and  if  Pennsylvania  were  to  expend  wisely  a  mil- 
lion dollars  on  the  schools  of  the  enfeebled  rural  districts,  another, 
and  more  than  one  as  great  as  Faraday  might  arise  out  of  obscurity 
and  the  mists  of  ignorance  and  go  to  his  predestined  work. 

CONSOLIDATION   AN  AID   TO  ADVANCEMENT  'THROUGH  CLASSIFICA- 
TION. 

One  of  the  greatest  objections  to  the  mixed  country  school  is  the 
impossibility  of  profitably  classifying  the  pupils.  For  this  purpose 
the  large  schools  in  the  more  populous  districts  or  suburban  villages 
are  even  more  unwieldly  than  the  very  small  one.  It  is  accomplished, 
and  very  fairly,  considering  the  difficulties,  but  it  is  at  the  expense 
of  a  vast  deal  of  energy  and  brain  work  that  might  better  be  ap- 
plied in  more  direct  teaching.  The  classification  established  at  the 
beginning  of  the  term  is  liable  to  be  broken  in  upon  by  the  late 
entering  pupils  who  have  been  employed  during  the  summer  and 
early  fall.  The  teacher  is  thus  often  forced  to  form  new  and  addi- 
tional classes,  and  valuable  time  is  taken  from  those  already  at 
work.  The  great  desideration  in  schools  where  the  course  of  study 
is  confined  to  the  elementary  branches  is  a  reduction  of  class  exer- 
cises. Where  there  is  no  apparent  limit  to  the  spelling  and  reading 
and  rudimentary  arithmetic  classes,  such  as  are  found  in  every 
country  school,  there  is  no  mental  stimulus  for  teacher  or  pupils, 
and  teaching  and  learning  alike  become  a  joyless  drudgery. 

But  as  soon  as  the  school  is  grouped  in  partial  grades  the  trouble 
diminishes.  The  promotion  from  class  to  class  and  from  grade  to 
grade  affords  a  wholesome  incentive  to  the  child,  and  to  the  teacher 


21 

a  better  opportunity  of  impressing  the  true  principle  of  education 
upon  the  school.  If  two  or  any  number  of  such  schools  near  enough 
to  each  other  to  make  it  convenient  were  united,  a  more  complete 
system  of  classification  would  follow,  and  there  would  be  at  once 
the  nucleus  of  a  high  school.  Enough  of  the  more  advanced  pupils 
would  be  found  able  to  take  one  or  more  of  the  higher  branches, 
the  loiterers  would  feel  the  impulse  of  the  grading,  and  the  ^ain 
throughout  would  be  so  great  as  to  speedily  yield  a  percentage  ol 
high  school  and  preparatory  normal  school  students  who  otherwise 
would  in  all  probability  drop  out  of  school  while  still  in  the  element- 
ary course.  The  gain  in  time  for  the  pupil  would  be  enormous; 
practice  in  drawing,  reading  from  selected  literature,  instruction  in 
Xature  studies,  physical  culture  and  other  special  training  could  be 
substituted  for  the  old  methods. 


CONSOLIDATION  THE  ONLY  METHOD  BY  WHICH  EVERY  TOWNSHIP  IN 
THE  RURAL  DISTRICTS  CAN  HAVE  A  HIGH  SCHOOL. 

From  the  preceding  propositions,  it  will  be  seen  that  without  a 
definite  change  of  system,  the  pupils  of  the  outlying  schools  cannot 
go  much  bej^ond  the  elementary  branches.  The  lack  of  appliances 
for  illustrating  the  principles  of  the  higher  mathematics  and  other 
sciences,  want  of  time  from  the  necessity  of  maintaining  numerous 
classes,  and  the  absence  of  systematic  grading,  are  reasons  for 
the  school,  even  under  a  good  teacher,  never  getting  farther  than 
a  certain  point — a  point  a  little  below  the  grammar  school  grade 
in  better  schools.  By  that  time  the  weeding  out  process  has  begun. 
The  boys  usually  drop  out,  first,  either  aiming  at  securing  employ- 
ment or  obtaining  better  educational  advantages  elsewhere.  The 
girls  remain  a  little  longer,  but  none,  or  very  few,  stay  until  they  have 
thoroughly  mastered  the  few  advanced  studies  possible  to  be  taken 
in  such  mixed  schools.  The  consequence  is  that  even  under  the 
provision  by  which  properly  fitted  pupils  can  be  admitted  to  con- 
tiguous schools  of  a  higher  grade,  they  cannot  claim  it. 

The  high  school  contemplated  under  the  consolidated  system  is, 
however,  something  different  from  the  ordinary  town  or  city  high 
school.  It  is  designed  to  be  a  training  school  with  a  specific  object; 
namely,  that  of  fitting  a  class  for  its  sure  duties,  to  put  the  worker 
in  harmony  with  his  work. 

One  of  the  anomalies  of  the  education  thought  of  the  day,  is  to 
apply  the  same  general  principles  to  the  education  of  the  country 
child  as  to  that  of  the  city;  yet  their  environments  are  antipodal. 
A  hoped-for  result  of  consolidation  is  to  correct  this  and  to  give  a 
practical  trend  to  the  first  steps  in  learning.. 


22 

In  this,  as  in  other  things,  the  city  takes  care  of  itself.  The  school 
early  gives  a  bias  to  the  child's  outlook  in  life.  It  is  taught  its  duties 
to  the  public,  to  society,  to  all  that  relates  to  civic  repsonsibilities. 
It  early  recognizes  the  importance  of  conforming  to  conventional 
rules  and  customs,  and  to  the  power  qf  public  opinion.  It  develops 
an  interest  in  local  matters,  and  takes  a  pride  in  local  progressive 
movements. 

External  influences  are  brought  to  bear  upon  its  education.  The 
press,  the  pulpit,  the  social  reformer,  unite  in  holding  up  high  ideals 
of  thought  and  living  before  the  schools.  Libraries  and  reading- 
rooms  give  information  as  to  the  world  without,  and  the  place  it  holds 
for  the  youthful  aspirant,  so  that  by  these  influences,  with  the 
special  knowledge  gained  in  passing  upward,  the  student  is  enabled 
to  judge  of  his  own  fitness  for  a  selected  course  in  life. 

The  country  school  has  the  same  curriculum,  without  the  practical 
illustration,  the  proposition  without  the  demonstration.  The  out- 
come of  the  child's  education  is  left  largely  to  chance  and  circum- 
stances, and  of  the  class  that  goes  forward  into  higher  courses  of 
learning,  a  large  proportion  enter  the  learned  professions,  which 
severs  the  tie  that  would  naturally  hold  them  to  home  aijd  child- 
hood associations.  It  is  a  significant  fact  that  instances  are  rare 
where  the  great  man  in  letters  or  science  who  sprung  from  the 
country,  returns  to  lay  the  tribute  of  affection  at  Nature's  feet. 
With  a  few  noble  exceptions,  he  is  content  to  let  the  farm  that 
nourished  his  youthful  strength  go  to  ruin  and  decay,  while  he  builds 
libraries  and  endows  schools  of  learning  in  the  city  that  shares  his 
fame.  With  a  sentimental  regret  he  can  gaze  upon  the  poorly 
appointed  school  house,  while  he  showers  benefits  upon  his  alma 
mater. 

In  this  connection,  it  may  be  noted  as  a  singular  fact  bearing  upon 
the  subject,  that  of  the  thirty  or  upwards  colleges  and  universities 
in  Pennsylvania,  there  is  only  one  entirely  devoted  to  the  promo- 
tion of  agricultural  interests.  It  is  probable,  if  the  country  high 
school,  as  proposed,  could  be  established,  with  special  courses  lead- 
ing to  expert  knowledge  in  various  farming  and  dairy  departments, 
a  large  increase  of  students  desiring  to  enter  upon  these  higher 
courses  of  study  would  ensue. 

SELECTED  COURSES  IN  EDUCATION  FOR  COUNTRY  STUDENTS. 

If  the  children  of  a  district  were  brought  together  and  placed 
under  a  competent  head,  and  the  school  in  good  working  order,  it 
would  then  be  possible  to  give  some  order  to  the  division  of  studies 
for  those  in  the  higher  grades.  For  such  as  intend  going  into  the 
mechanical  arts,  a  saving  of  time  could  be  thus  effected.  For  those 
looking  forward  to  a  classical  or  literary  course  leading  to  the  pro- 
fessions and  for  those  who  expect  to  remain  in  the  country  and  be- 


23 

come  identified  witli  its  local  interests,  either  in  farming,  mining, 
fruit  culture,  or  any  of  the  industries  established  in  different  pa^ts 
of  the  State,  congenial  and  profitable  instruction  could  be  provided, 
such  as  would  at  once  strengthen  the  intellect  and  enable  them  to 
take  advanced  ground  in  their  further  progress. 

Statistics  are  not  obtainable  to  show  what  proportion  of  the  stu- 
dents in  the  leading  institutions  of  this  State  came  from  thecountry, 
or  the  whole  number  pursuing  the  more  professional  and  technical 
courses  of  study  during  four  years  preceding  graduation.  It  will  be 
seen,  however,  from  the  lists  of  graduates,  that  Pennsylvania  favors 
practical  and  speedy  results  in  learning  as  well  as  in  more  material 
matters.  There  is  not  so  much  stress  laid  upon  knowledge  for 
knowledge  sake  as  in  New  England  and  some  other  States 

The  University  of  Pennsylvania,  of  degrees  conferred  June,  1900, 
there  were : 

A.  B., '. 16 

Music, 2 

B.  Sc,   27 

B.  S.  Biolog., 5 

!M.  A.,   11 

Ph.   D.,    15 

Honorary,  2 

Total,  78 

B.  iSc.  architecture, 7 

B.  Sc.  chemistry, 11 

B,  Sc.  civil  engineering, 4 

B.  Sc.  economics, 10 

B.  Sc.  electrical  engineering, 7 

B.  Sc.  mechanical  engineering, 7 

M.  S.  technical, 1 

Mechanical  engineering, 1 


Total,  ..-. 53 

Law, 83 

Medicine, 180 

Dentistry,  144 

Veterinary, 11 


318 
471 


24 

In  all,  there  were  549  degrees  Conferred,  of  which  15  per  cent, 
represent  literary  training  and  85  technical  and  trade  pursuits. 
Taking  three  other  institutions: 


Literary 
degrees. 


Technical  or 
trade. 


Lehigh 

Lafayette,     

Pennsylvania  State, 

Total 


45 


104 


Viewed  from  the  standpoint  of  the  country  or  State  at  large,  it 
would  be  a  gain  to  prepare  the  students  taking  these  courses  in  the 
home  high  school,  the  terms  of  admission  being  made  on  the  high 
school  standard.  More  students  would  enter  the  higher  institutions 
and  all  branches  of  industry  would  ultimately  be  benefited. 

The  possibility  of  taking  such  a  higher  course  would  act  as  a 
stimulus  to  the  country  student,  keeping  him  out  of  the  way  of  the 
commoner  allurements  of  the  city.  Thus,  briefly  stated,  the  consoli- 
dated high  school  might  be  expected  to  bring  about  these  results: 

1.  A  gain  in  time. 

2.  A  gain  in  number  of  students. 

3.  A  reduction  in  expense  of  higher  education. 

4.  A  reduction  of  the  number  going  into  the  laboring  employments. 

5.  A  gain  to  the  individual  and  to  the  State,  reacting  favorable  on 
each. 

A  COURSE  OF  STUDY  ADAPTED  TO  THE  CONSOLIDATED  COUNTRY 

SCHOOL. 

As  has  been  seen,  it  is  not  desirable  to  make  the  country  school 
a  reflected  copy  of  the  city  school,  however  excellent  the  latter  may 
be.  The  departure  from  the  course  usually  laid  down,  should  begin 
in  the  elementary  grades.  Every  encouragement  and  incitement 
should  be  ofl'ered  to  secure  a  thorough  and  practical  knowledge  of 
trees  and  plants,  insects  and  animals,  rocks,  and,  more  than  any  of 
these,  of  soils. 

Comparisons  of  scenery  and  localities  along  the  route  to  school, 
oral  and  written,  and  depicted  by  pencil,  however  crude  the  effect 
would  be.  The  country  child  needs  a  vocabulary  and  the  power  of 
expression.  Emulation  in  work  of  this  kind  brought  out  in  noting 
particular  objects,  natural  or  incidental,  that  may  have  historical 
interest,  or  local  material  intei:est,  would  often  turn  the  imagination 
awav  from  the  distant  and  more  brilliant  occurrences  in  the  towns 


26 

and  cities  to  their  own  home  surroundings  and  a  germ  of  pride  of 
nativity,  tlius  implantei  would  outlast  many  more  pretentious  devices 
for  securing  the  same  end.  The  cultivation  of  the  powers  of  obser- 
vation— often  called  another  sense,  and  of  tracing  the  indications 
of  unusual  and  curious  natural  formations  to  their  ultimate  mean- 
ing would  tend  to  strengthen  that  recognition  of  a  Higher  Power 
innate  to  the  human  soul,  develop  the  desire  to  become  allied  to  the 
hidden  influence  that  moves  Nature's  forces,  and  thus  to  form  the 
true  patriot,  the  worthy  citizen,  the  humble  Christian,  as  well  as 
the  accurate  and  logical  thinker. 

Two  sets  of  the  mental  powers  would  be  exercise  by  such  meth- 
ods— the  external,  or  observing  sense,  and  the  internal,  or  reason- 
ing sense.  So,  too,  the  country  pupils  should  be  taught  some- 
thing of  the  labor  problem,  of  the  relations  of  the  wage  earner 
to  his  employer  and  of  the  reciprocal  duties  of  the  State  and  the 
citizen.  These  processes,  almost  entirely  ignored,  because  impos- 
sible under  present  conditions,  would  make  enormous  additions  to  the 
intellectual  stock  of  the  country  child  and  would  have  an  influence 
on  the  home. 

The  environment  of  the  country  school  is  favorable  to  the  evolu- 
tion of  the  scientist,  whether  in  the  natural  sciences  or  in  the  learned 
professions.  It  is  favorable  to  the  evolution  of  the  thinker  in  every 
line.  It  is  favorable  to  the  evolution  of  the  artist  and  of  the  citizen. 
What  these  waiting  forces  want  is  opportunity;  the  school  is  the 
opportunity.  The  power  of  early  impressions  is  beyond  computation, 
and  if  a  natural  gift  or  tendency  is  reinforced  by  the  suggestions  of 
a  wise  teacher  in  the  earlier  developing  stage,  Pennsylvania  would 
soon  take  first  rank  in  education  among  her  sister  States. 

SOCIAL  INFLUENCE  OF  A  CENTRAL  CONSOLIDATED   SCHOOL. 

Country  life  in  the  remoter  districts  tends  to  repression.  One  of 
the  strongest  attractions  of  the  town  for  the  country  child,  is  in  the 
greater  opportunities  for  companionship  found  there.  Not  only  the 
child  but  the  elder  feels  the  drawing  of  that  instinct  which  leads 
mankind  to  rejoice  in  association  with  each  other.  The  dozen  or 
more  schools  of  various  sizes  scattered  over  the  country  district, 
some  difficult  of  access  from  rough  and  unsafe  roads,  often  situ- 
ated in  a  neglected  and  out-of-the-way  spot,  have  little  incentive  to 
join  forces  in  the  school  exercises  or  to  impress  their  work  on  the 
hom-es  and  social  interests  of  the  neighborhood.  Singly  and  de- 
tached, they  cannot  generate  the  power  to  penetrate  the  lives  of  the 
several  groups  that  compose  the  pupils,  or  to  serve  as  object  lessons 
of  the  value  of  the  true  and  the  beautiful  in  human  helpfulness. 
Isolation  for  the  young  is  irksome,  and  they  early  form  the  resolve 


«  26 

to  forsake  the  dull  routine  of  oft-covered  lessons  whicli  seem  to 
hold  no  promise  of  personal  benefit.  The  city,  with  its  cultured  so- 
ciety, its  atmosphere  of  refinement,  its  multitude  of  objects  and  out- 
lets for  every  shade  of  taste  and  interest,  appeals  to  the  youthful 
nature.  Here  are  possibilities — openings  for  enterprise  and  pleas- 
ure; here,  too,  are  sympathetic  hearts  to  understand  their  hopes. 

To  another  class,  the  succession  of  ^'events"  in  the  city  gives  a 
holiday  aspect  to  life  all  too  prosaic  in  their  experience,  and  a  com- 
parison is  to  the  disadvantage  of  the  country.  With  a  common 
meeting  point  with  the  mutual  interest  of  school  work  and  the  in- 
terchange of  thoughts  and  feeling,  and  the  frequent  presence  of 
parents  and  friends  on  the  special  occasions  sure  to  be  inaugurated 
in  such  a  school,  the  whole  community  would  be  uplifted  and  cheered. 

The  oft-mooted  question  as  to  how  far  the  State  should  extend 
its  jurisdiction  into  the  home  and  family  circle,  presents  itself  here. 
This  question  comes  into  every  educational  advance  proposed.  The 
American  people  are  jealous  of  their  "rights,''  and  so  sometimes  lose 
sight  of  the  more  weighty  interests  involved.  "Paternalism"  is  an 
ugly  word  to  American  ears;  still,  under  the  modifications  and  restric- 
tions of  an  enlightened  public  opinion,  it  would  assume  a  different 
meaning,  and  work  for  good,  if  its  beneficiaries  could  be  induced 
to  look  at  it  from  all  sides.  This  is  one  of  the  principal  objections 
urged  against  consolidation  in  the  rural  districts,  that  it  savors  of 
"paternalism"  and  "favoritism."  Nothing  could  be  farther  from  the 
truth.  It  tends,  in  fact,  to  just  the  opposite.  If,  under  the  improved 
social  conditions  suggested,  where  all  the  people  of  a  district — not 
necessarily* a  school  district,  but  one  from  convenience  included  in 
the  central  school,  could  frequently  meet  and  witness  the  operation 
of  new  measures  and  receive  themselves  new  ideas  and  new  informa- 
tion along  the  line  of  their  daily  work  and  outlook,  they  would  soon 
see  what  the  best  educators  have  long  seen,  that  the  best  policy  of 
the  State  government  is  to  lift  the  people  out  of  the  rut  into  which 
they  may  have  fallen,  and  the  best  policy  of  the  people  is  to  allow 
themselves  to  be  so  lifted. 

Germany  has  its  finger  on  every  child  in  the  schools.  The  idea 
is  that  a  nation  should  provide  for  the  education  of  the  people, 
and  it  has  provided  for  the  education  of  the  whole  people — 
for  the  young  in  primary  and  secondary  schools,  for  those  more 
advanced,  in  technical  schools  and  universities.  So  educated,  they 
are  broad,  they  are  leaders  of  thought,  they  are  strong  in  every  di- 
rection and  return  fourfold  the  benefits  they  have  received.  *  The 
child  feels  that  the  great  eye  of  the  nation  is  upon  it;  that  its  course 
is  followed,  its  development  watched.  It  is  "cared  for"  to  that 
extent  that  the  child  feels — even  the  little  child  in  the  primary 
schools — the  throbbing  of  a  genuine  patriotic  sentiment  in  all  its 
veins.     They  boy  exists  for  the  schools;  his  ideal  is  to  be  a  state- 


27 

appointed  citizen  and  to  share  in  the  grandeur  of  the  fatherland. 
Patriotism  and  industry  go  hand  in  hand  to  make  of  him  a  useful, 
a  self-supporting,  a  religious  man. 

Under  the  consolidation  plan,  something  of  this  would  come  about. 
The  people  and  the  children  who  have  not  enough  resources  within 
themselves  are  brought  a  little  nearer  to  the  State,  or,  it  might  be 
better  to  say,  the  State  is  brought  nearer  to  the  child.  Ther^  would 
be  more  comprehension  of  mutual  dependency.  The  city  has  many 
ways  of  cultivating  this  relationship — ^the  country  has  only  one,  the 
school.  The  State  would  also  have  closer  supervision  over  the  school 
and  the  interests  other  than  educational  represented  in  it. 

In  minor  ways,  the  uncounted  influences  of  greater  social  inter- 
course would  be  worth  much.  With  a  common  meeting  point,  the 
older  and  younger  members  of  the  community  would  imbibe  some- 
thing of  the  sweet  and  ennobling  spirit  of  Nature's  teaching.  They 
v»  ould  learn  the  true  dignity  of  labor  and  the  beauty  of  a  life  occupa- 
tion that  lies  within  the  simpler  forms  of  life.  The  farmer  would 
often  visit  a  school  established  on  a  basis  which  he  comprehends, 
and  instead  of  the  worn-out  subjects  for  debate,  exhausted  by  our 
forefathers,  he  could  suggest  other  and  more  vital  subjects  and  more 
in  the  line  of  modern  agricultural  progress.  ^'Forestry,"  "Good 
Eoads,"  "Stock,'  as  against  "Cereal  Kaising,"  "Dairy''  and  "Truck" 
farming;  these,  though  not  so  pretentious  as  the  tariff  and  the  cur- 
rency questions,  are  just  as  important  to  the  well-being  of  the  State, 
and  much  nearer  to  the  circle  of  rural  interests.  Concerning  the 
worth  of  rural  training,  the  opinion  of  Francis  W.  Parker  is  well 
worth  quoting: 

"No  method,  no  system  of  schools,  no  enrichment  of  course  of  study, 
not  even  the  most  successful  of  teaching,  can  ever  take  the  place 
in  fundamental  education  of  the  farm  and  the  workshop.  No  matter 
how  good  the  city  schools  may  be,  or  may  be  made;  no  matter  how 
good  the  state  of  society  may  be,  the  vital  reinforcements  of  city 
life  that  lead  to  progress  and  prosperity  must  always  come  from  the 
sturdy  stock  of  the  farm.  This  fact,  upon  which  most  educators 
agree,  puts  upon  the  country  school  an  immense  responsibility. 
*  *  *  The  country  school  should  make  farm  labor  and 
all  labor  honorable,  should  dignify  it,  should  show  that  the  environ- 
ment of  the  country  furnishes  inexhaustible  resources  for  intellectual 
life,  that  the  child  bring  a  loving  heart  to  nature;  that  the  so-called 
practical  things  of  life,  hard  and  severe  labor  should  have  their  high- 
est outcome  in  the  cultivation  of  the  love  of  the  beautiful  in  liie." 


28 


CONSOLIDATION  OF  RURAL   SCHOOLS  IN   OPERATION  IN 
NEW  ENGLAND  STATES  AND  PORTIONS  OF  OHIO. 


As  no  argument  is  so  convincing  as  authentic  evidence,  it  will  be 
interesting  as  well  as  instructive  to  sketch  briefly,  the  history  of 
consolidation  as  it  worked  its  way  from  small  and  experimental 
beginnings  in  Massachusetts  to  its  present  acknowledged  standing 
in  all  the  New  England  States,  portions  of  Ohio,  Dakota  and  in  a  few 
places  in  Pennsylvania.  New  York  also  is  testing  it  in  a  more  or 
less  modified  form. 

In  following  these  outlines  it  will  be  well  to  bear  in  mind  that  rural 
life  in  New  England  differs  from  that  of  Pennsylvania.  Nothing 
strikes  the  traveler  from  the  middle  and  western  States  more  forcibly 
than  the  comparatively  small  areas  of  what  are  called  farms  and 
farming  districts.  There  is  the  absence  of  that  air  of  thrift  and 
plenty  of  nature's  abundance^ — fields  of  waving  grain,  great  barns 
and  well-kept  outbuildings  so  dear  to  the  heart  of  the  Pennsyl- 
vanian.  In  brief,  there  is  notably  the  difference  between  the  manu- 
facturing and  agricultural  aspect.  The  same  rules  or  plans  in  educa- 
tion and  in  some  other  things  do  not  apply  to  both.  There  is  also 
to  the  Pensylvanian,  accustomed  to  the  township  system,  something 
confusing  in  the  New  England  school  nomenclature.  It  is  mislead- 
ing to  hear  the  word  town  used  for  what  in  this  and  some  other  States 
is  a  township.  It  is  not  necessary  to  explain  further  the  full  mean- 
ing in  application  of  the  two  terms,  except  to  indicate  that  the  term 
town,  as  it  is  used  in  one  place,  is  totally  different  in  meaning  in 
another.  Township  division,  or  the  township  unit,  as  it  is  variously 
called  in  its  application  to  schools,  is  a  much  more  convenient  system 
than  the  "district  system"  formerly  and  still  in  use  in  parts  of  New 
England  and  in  other  States. 

The  district  system  was  the  great  obstacle  to  consolidation  when 
it  was  first  proposed. 

*SOME  DETAILS  OF  THE  PROGRESS  OF  CONSOLIDATION  OF  SCHOOLS  IN 

MASSACHUSETTS. 

Like  other  radical  reforms,  consolidation  of  schools  grew  out 
of  the  immediate  needs  of  a  neighborhood  or  of  several  neighbor- 
hoods. The  tendency  of  the  youthful  part  of  the  country  population 
to  desert  the  homestead  and  follow  the  allurements  of  wealth  and 
enterprise  to  wi^er  fields,  left  its  first  disastrous  effects  upon  the 
school.  The  "little  red  school  house"  so  celebrated  in  local  litera- 
ture, so  dear  in  its  associations,  and  so  effective  in  its  work  in  the 

•Compiled  from  the  pamphlet  of  G.  T.  Fletcher,  agent  of  the  Mass.  Board  of  Kducation;  from  the 
Reports  of  Secretary  Hill,  of  the  State  Board  of  Bducation,  and  from  private  communications. 


29 

earlier  history  of  the  country,  no  longer  answered  the  more  strenu 
ous  demands  of  the  time.  It  was  at  the  cost  of  a  painful  sacrifice 
of  sentiment  that  a  change  was  made.  In  the  time  of  stress  and 
struggle,  when  New  England  was  moulding  its  forces  for  future  con- 
quest, the  country  school  house  was  the  center  of  interest  to  both  old 
and  young  for  many  miles  around.  The  stalwart  youth  of  eighteen 
or  twenty  found  in  its  unpretentious  but  thorough  teachings^  suf- 
ficient intellectual  equipment  for  the  future  he  had  marked  out  for 
himself,  and  there  the  maiden  whose  name  afterward  shone  like  a 4 
star  in  the  annals  of  literary  achievement  received  her  first  inspira- 
tion. But  the  onward  march  of  progress  cannot  be  checked  by  a 
sentiment,  and  the  wayside  school  was  abandoned  altogether  or  left 
to  so  small  a  number  that  it  became  a  mere  question  of  economy  to 
close  it.  A  diminished  population,  a  lowering  of  property  valua- 
tion and  fewer  children,  yet  each  of  these  a  just  claimant  of  the 
State's  bounty.  The  remedy  was  simple,  and  apparently  the  only 
one,  viz:  to  unite  the  small  and  weak  schools  of  a  town  dispersed 
over  a  large  territory  into  a  few  strong,  well-equipped  and  well- 
graded  schools,  at  a  point  best  suited  for  the  purpose. 

*^^Notwithstanding  all  the  inconveniences  and  difficulties,  we 
believe  the  only  practical  w^ay  to  elevate  schools  to  a  higher  stand- 
ard is  by  consolidating  and  transferring  the  pupils  of  the  rural  dis- 
tricts to  the  center. 

"The  town  of  Concord  is  regarded  generally  and  properly  as  the 
pioneer  in  this  movement,  to  close  all  her  district  schools,  primarily 
from  educational  motives,  and  to  convey  their  pupils  to  the  graded 
central  schools.  The  results  in  Concord  were  observed  carefully  by 
the  educators  in  Massachusetts,  and  found  to  be  good,  and  many  of 
her  near  neighbors  have  already  followed  her  example." 

From  the  same  report  we  learn  how  obstacles  were  met.  "Con- 
cord is  a  town  of  about  4,000  inhabitants,  situated  twenty  miles  north- 
west of  Boston.  For  school  administrative  purposes  it  was  divided 
early  in  the  century  into  two  village  districts,  and  five  rural  districts. 
For  many  years  prior  to  1870,  the  common  schools  of  Concord  were 
twelve  in  number,  occupying  eleven  houses.  Five  of  these  schools 
were  placed  in  the  central  village,  two  at  West  Concord  and  the 
remaining  five  were  country  district  schools  for  the  accommoda- 
tion of  the  outlying  farming  population.  The  district  school  houses 
were  at  distances  from  the  center  varying  from  one  and  one-half  to 
three  miles.  At  the  center  was  the  high  school,  to  which  children 
came  from  all  parts  of  the  town  (township). 

"These  schools  were  taught  by  experienced  teachers,  most  of  whom 
had  received  a  special  training  for  the  work.  The  influence  of 
Colonel  Parker's  great  work  at  Quincy  was  reflected  in  many  of  the 

*Extraot  from  a  special  report  on  the  subject  by  Mr.  Wm.  L.  Eaton,  Superintendent  of  Schools  in 
Concord,  Mass. 


30 

schools.  Yet  the  general  results  were  far  frora  satisfactory,  and 
the  school  committee,  under  the  leadership  of  their  superintendent, 
Mr.  John  B.  Tileston,  met  the  emergency  resolutely.  A  vigorous 
agitation  procured  from  the  town  an  appropriation  of  money  suf- 
ficient to  build  and  equip  an  eight-room  school  house  at  the  center. 

*^An  immediate  and  inevitable  improvement  in  every  quality  that 
distinguishes  a  good  from  a  poor  school  resulted.  The  school  com- 
mittee then  turned  their  attention  to  the  district  schools.  The  center 
^school  would  accommodate  all  the  children,  and  the  laws  of  the 
State  enabled  the  town  to  raise  and  appropriate  money  'to  be  ex- 
pended by  the  school  committee  in  their  discretion  in  providing  for 
'the  conveyance  of  pupils  to  and  from  the  public  schools.' 

"The  school  committee  adopted  the  suggestion,  that  it  was  advis- 
able to  close  the  district  schools  and  to  convey  the  children  to  the 
center.  To  carry  the  suggestion  into  effect  was  a  difficult  matter. 
The  difficulty  can  be  realized  when  it  is  understood  that  a  period 
of  nearly  ten  years  elapsed  between  the  closing  of  the  first  and  the 
closing  of  the  last  of  the  five  district  schools,  and  that  during  these 
years  the  successive  school  boards  never  lost  sight  of  the  end  in 
view,  nor  relaxed  their  efforts  to  reach  that  end.  A  strong  con- 
servatism existed  in  the  districts.  The  idea  of  consolidation  was 
novel,  and  raised  doubts  and  objections  that  could  not  be  met  by 
past  experience.  On  the  other  hand,  it  was  possible  for  the  plan 
to  prevail  in  the  end  because  the  communities  directly  affected 
were  highly  intelligent,  and  formed  their  judgments  thoughtfully 
and  correctly.  It  is  an  interesting  fact,  also,  that  during  the  whole 
ten  years  of  change,  a  majority  of  the  committee  were  farmers." 

Attention  is  called  to -several  points  in  the  foregoing  extract: 

1.  The  impelling  motive  in  the  action  taken  by  the  school  authori- 
ties was  to  provide  better  advantages  for  the  children,  not  only  of 
the  outlying  districts  but  for  the  whole  number  of  pupils  who  would, 
under  the  plan,  be  brought  together  in  one  well-graded  school. 

2.  The  movement  was  slow,  for  the  reason  that  the  school  authori- 
ties aimed  to  enlighten  public  opinion  and  thus  create  a  sentiment 
in  favor  of  a  more  elevated  standard  in  public  education. 

3.  The  movement  was  never  allowed  to  drop  out  of  public  view. 
Every  successive  school  report  during  the  time  of  agitation  for  the 
measure,  contained  references,  appeals  and  statements  in  regard  to 
it.  Numerous  addresses  were  also  made  and  the. legislative  bodies 
for  the  most  part  were  in  sympathy  with  it. 

CONVEYANCE  OF  THE  CHILDREN. 

Scattered  as  were  these  rural  populations,  and  in  some  cases  in 
rough  and  broken  country,  their  conveyance  to  the  school  at  the 
center  proved  to  be  the  stumbling  block  in  the  way  of  the  proposed 


31 

reform.  A  halt  of  public  opinion  occurred  at  the  point  where  the 
duties  of  the  State  seemed  to  conflict  with  the  duties  of  the  parent. 
As  the  State  supplied  the  means,  the  parent  or  school  community 
ought  to  provide  in  some  degree  the  manner.  The  distribution  of 
State  aid  would  require  re-adjustment.  Great  social  inequality, 
or  moral  unworthiness  and  many  minor  considerations  entered  into 
the  situation. 

To  illustrate:  It  was  stated  in  the  session  of  the  Directors'  Con- 
vention of  Pennsylvania,  held  at  Harrisburg,  in  1899,  that  a  diffi- 
culty of  this  nature  existed  in  Chester  county,  of  this  State,  where 
consolidation  has  been  tried.  Objection  was  made  to  the  foreign 
element,  notably,  Hungarian. 

Conveyance  of  children  is  liable  to  abuse  by  over-indulgence  of 
whims  and  needless  anxiety  of  parents.  There  is  little  danger  of 
robbing  the  child  of  that  finer  fibre  of  independence,  which  is 
worth  so  much  in  after  life  as  to  become  a  question  whether  too 
much  aid  is  not  worse  than  too  little.  In  some  of  its  phases,  the 
difficulty  of  conveyance  is  sure  to  confront  the  school  board  in  the 
settlement  of  the  central  school  question. 

THE  PROBLEM  OF  CONVEYANCE  AS  MET  BY  MASSACHUSETTS. 

Gr.  T.  Fetcher,  Agent  of  the  Massachusetts  Board  of  Education, 
gives  the  following  results  of  inquiries  as  to  how  the  difficulty  was 
met  in  that  State: 

"Approximately  45  per  cent,  of  the  towns  report  that  they  give 
equal  consideration  (in  conveyance)  to  young  children  of  both  sexes. 
Ten  per  cent,  report  that  they  give  a  preference  to  girls  in  their 
plans.  Twelve  per  cent,  consider  the  character  of  the  route.  Thirty- 
two  per  cent,  make  no  discrimination  as  to  children,  schools  or 
routes." 

PAYMENT  FOR  CONVEYANCE. 

"Payments  are  sometimes  made  to  parents  for  the  actual  attend- 
ance of  children,  so  much  per  day  a  child.  Payments  are  most  fre- 
quently made  to  persons  hired  for  the  purpose,  or,  where  practicable, 
to  steam  or  electric  railroad  companies.  Some  parents  carry  their 
own  children  for  a  stated  sum. 

"In  43  per  cent,  of  the  towns  the  school  committee  makes  bargains 
and  settles  details;  in  10  per  cent,  a  sub-committee  of  the  school 
committee;  in  5  per  cent,  chairman  of  school  committee;  in  12  per 
cent,  the  superintendent  of  schools;  in  4  per  cent,  by  the  committee 
and  the  superintendent." 

NO  BAD  RESULTS. 

"The  apprehensions  of  the  owners  of  real  estate  that  a  deprecia- 
tion of  values  would  result  if  the  local  schools  were  closed,  have 


32 

proven  to  be  groundless.  The  natural  reluctance  of  parents  to  send 
their  young  children  so  far  from  home,  and  for  all  day,  to  attend  the 
central  school,  has  vanished.  The  children  are  conveyed  in  comfort- 
able vehicles,  fitted  up  for  their  accommodation.  They  are  in  charge 
of  trusty  drivers  en  route,  and  at  noon  they  are  under  the  especial 
care  of  one  of  the  teachers,  who  has  an  extra  compensation  for  the 
service.  When  it  is  practicable,  a  farmer  living  near  the  extreme 
end  of  the  district  is  employed  to  convey  the  children.  Often  the 
farmer's  vs^ife  drives  the  conveyance.  Three  two-horse  barges  and 
two  one-horse  wagons  are  in  use  at  present.  All  these  vehicles  are 
fitted  with  seats  running  lengthwise,  and  are  closed  or  open  at  sides 
and  ends,  as  the  weather  requires.  The  driver  starts  from  or  near 
the  remote  end  of  his  district  and  drives  down  the  principal  thor- 
oughfare, taking  up  the  children  at  their  own  doors  or  at  cross-street 
corners. 

''The  attendance  of  the  children  conveyed  is  several  per  cent,  better 
than  that  of  the  village  children,  and  it  is  far  higher  than  it  was  in 
the  old  district  schools.  This  is  not  strange  when  one  reflects  that 
the  children  are  taken  at  or  near  their  own  doors  and  conveyed  to 
school  without  exposure  in  stormy  weather.  Discipline  is  main- 
tained in  the  carriages  as  the  driver  has  ample  authority  for  this 
purpose.  The  children  are  conveyed  from  one  to  three  and  one-half 
miles.  The  cost  of  transportation  is  about  fifty  dollars  per  week. 
It  is  estimated  that  it  would  cost  seventy  dollars  a  week  to  maintain 
schools  in  all  the  districts. 

"^Vhatever  advantages  a  system  of  carefully  graded  schools,  occu- 
pying a  well-ventilated  and  well-cared  for  school  house,  taught  by 
a  body  of  intelligent  and  earnest  teachers,  co-operating  to  secure 
the  best  discipline  within  and  without  the  school  room,  has  over  a 
mixed  country  school",  such  advantages  are  shared  alike  hy  all  the 
inhabitants  of  this  town.  All  alike  are  interested  in  all  real  progress 
in  methods  of  discipline  and  instruction  and  in  improved  appliances 
to  aid  instruction.  Superintendence  becomes  more  efficient.  The 
introduction  of  new  subjects  of  study  and  of  drawing,  music  and 
nature  study  is  made  possible  and  easy.  Appliances  of  all  kinds 
and  books  of  reference  can  be  provided  more  extensively  and  at  less 
cost.  The  history  of  this  movement  in  Concord  conclusively  shows 
that  the  success  of  the  plan  was*  due  to  its  intrinsic  merit,  acting  upon 
the  minds  of  an  enlightened  people  desirous  of  furthering  the  true 
educational  interests  of  their  children." 

SUBORDINATE  ADVANTAGES. 

1.  ^'All  the  children  of  the  town  meet  on  the  same  arena,  test 
the  quality  each  of  the  other,  and  exchange  from  the  beginning  those 
influences  which  will  mould  them  to  act  together  harmoniously  and 
intelligently  in  the  future. 


33 

2.  ''All  the  parents  of  the  town  have  an  equal  interest  in  the  wel- 
fare of  the  two  central  system  of  schools. 

3.  Many  families  have  come  to  live  in  the  town  because  of  its 
educational  advantages.  The  farms  that  come  upon  the  market  find 
readier  sale  than  before. 

4.  ''The  children  from  the  farming  districts  are  no  longer  dis- 
tinguishable from  the  village  children  by  a  certain  awkwardness  of 
manner  or  address. 

5.  "The  moral  tone  of  the  school  and  of  the  school  yards  has  been 
elevated  wonderfully." 

FURTHER  PROGRESS  IN  CONSOLIDATION. 

In  1893,  Supt.  Eaton  prepared  a  statement  of  the  results  of  the 
law  authorizing  transportation  for  the  Massachusetts  public  school 
exhibit  at  the  Columbian  Exposition.  In  the  preparation  of  this 
report,  circulars  of  inquiry  were  sent  to  165  towns  and  135  replies 
were  received. 

''These  replies  indicated  a  gradually  increasing  number  of  schools 
cl(;sed  yearly.  The  reasons  for  closing  were  given  as  'financial  and 
educational.'  It  was  found  from  this  that  transportation  to  a  central 
school  made  it  cheaper.  *  *  *  In  other  towns  the  desire 
to  make  strong  central  schools,  and  the  purpose  to  give  all  of  the 
L-hildren  of  the  town  better  advantages,  have  been  the  dominant 
motives  to  determine  consolidation.  Results  have  been  satisfac- 
tory." 

Particular  stress  should  be  laid  on  the  latter  clause,  viz:  strong 
schools,  better  appliances,  better  teachers,  and  better  supervision  for 
all  the  children,  for  these  are  the  most  potent  arguments  in  favor  of 
consolidation. 

In  a  great  State  like  Pennsylvania,  with  its  generous  appropria- 
tions for  school  purposes,  the  financial  side  of  the  question  is  second- 
ary to  the  great  principle  of  equity,  and  actual  gain  in  education. 


EXTRACTS  FROM  REPORTS  OP  STATE  AGENTS  OF  THE  BOARD  OF 
EDUCATION  IN  MASSACHUSETTS. 

(State  Agent  G.  T.  Fletcher,  1893-94.) 

"The  exodus  of  young  men  and  women  to  the  cities  of  Massachu- 
setts and  to  the  States  of  the  west  has  left  many  of  the  towns  poor 
in  people  and  property.  The  State  should  co-operate  with  the  towns 
in  securing  for  their  children  educational  advantages  equal  to  those 
possessed  by  wealthy  communities.  The  school  population  has  di- 
minished in  a  greater  ratio  than  that  of  the  adults  because  large 


u 

families  of  children  were  common  formerly,  uncommon  now,  but  the 
number  of  schools  has  not  been  reduced  in  like  proportion  to  the 
number  of  children,  and  as  a  result,  many  schools  are  too  small  to  be 
•  interesting. 

"Two  things  may  be  regarded  as  objects  to  be  kept  in  view — effici- 
ency and  economy.  Means  to  secure  these  ends  are  comfortable 
and  convenient  school  houses,  necessary  appliances,  no  more  schools 
than  are  needed,  intelligent  teaching  and  skilled  superintendence. 

"In  many  towns  the  schools  can  be  conveniently  united  by  twos 
and  threes,  according  to  size  and  location.  In  other  towns  all  the 
children  can  be  gathered  at  a  center,  where  a  graded  school  can  be 
established.  Only  in  this  way  can  the  best  primary  instruction  be 
secured  and  a  high  school  become  a  possibility." 

Mr.  Fletcher  inserts  in  this  report  the  following  letter  from  Sey- 
mour Rockwell,  of  Montague,  for  nearly  thirty  years  a  member  of 
the  school  committee  of  that  town: 

"Montague,  Dec.  6, 1893. 

"Dear  Sir:  For  eighteen  years  we  have  had  the  best  attendance 
from  the  transported  children;  no  more  sickness  among  them  and 
no  accidents.     The  children  like  the  plan  exceedingly. 

"We  have  saved  the  town  at  least  |600  a  year.  All  these  children 
now  attend  school  in  a  fine  house  at  the  center,  well  equipped.  The 
schools  are  graded.  Everybody  is  converted  to  the  plan.  We  en- 
countered all  the  opposition  found  anywhere,  but  we  asserted  our 
sensible  and  legal  rights  and  accomplished  the  work.  I  see  no 
way  to  bring  up  the  country  schools  but  to  consolidate  them,  making 
them  worth  seeing,  then  the  people  will  do  their  duty  by  visiting 
them. 

"SEYMOUR  ROCKWELL." 
(Mr.  George  A.  Welton,  Agent.) 

"In  many  towns  the  process  (of  consolidation)  is  phenomenal. 
"The  consolidation        *        *        *        is  as  creditable  a  part  of 
our  school  history  as  their  stand  in  colonial  days  is  the  history  of  the 
nation." 

Another  Massachusetts  State  Agent,  Mr.  A.  W.  Edson,  discusses 
the  question  of  public  conveyance  of  pupils  as  follows: 

"There  is  a  decided  tendency  on  the  part  of  intelligent  and  pro- 
gressive communities  to  close  the  small  schools  in  remote  districts 
and  to  transport  children  to  the  graded  schools  of  the  villages,  where 
better  classification,  better  grading  and  better  teaching  are  the  rule. 
This  is  done,  not  so  much  from  an  economic  standpoint  as  because 
ol*  the  firm  conviction  that  the  children  receive  greater  educational 
advantages  than  in  the  small  ungraded  schools." 


S5 

THE  ADVANTAGES  SUMMED  UP  IN  THIS  REPORT. 

^'1.  Better  grading  of  the  schools  and  classification  of  pupils. 
Pupils  placed  where  they  can  work  to  best  advantage,  the  various 
subjects  of  study  to  be  wisely  selected  and  correlated,  and  more  time 
to  be  given  to  recitation. 

"2.  It  affords  an  opportunity  for  thorough  work  in  special  brajiches, 
such  as  drawing,  music  and  nature  study.  It  also  allows  enrichment 
in  other  lines. 

"3.  It  opens  the  door  to  more  weeks  of  schooling  and  to  schools 
of  a  higher  grade.  The  people  in  villages  almost  invariably  lengthen 
the  school  year  and  support  a  high  school  for  advanced  pupils. 

^'4.  It  insures  the  employment  and  retention  of  better  teachers. 
Teachers  in  small  ungraded  schools  are  usually  of  limited  education, 
training  or  experience.  The  salaries  paid  in  cities  and  villages  allow 
a  wide  range  in  the  selection  of  teachers. 

^'o.  It  makes  the  work  of  the  specialist  and  supervisor  more  effec- 
tive. Their  plans  and  efforts  can  all  be  concentrated  into  something 
tangible. 

"6.  It  adds  the  stimulating  influences  of  large  classes,  with  the  re- 
sulting enthusiasm  and  generous  rivalry.  The  discipline  and  train- 
ing obtained  are  invaluable. 

"7.  It  affords  the  broader  companionship  and  culture  that  comes 
from  association  with  large  numbers. 

"8.  It  results  in  a  better  attendance  of  pupils,  as  proved  by  experi- 
ence in  towns  where  the  plan  has  been  tried. 

^'9.  It  leads  to  better  equipment  in  every  way,  reference  books, 
charts,  apparatus.  All  these  naturally  follow  a  concentration  of 
wealth  and  effort,  and  aid  in  making  good  schools. 

"The  large  expenditure  implied  in  these  better  appointments  is 
wise  economy,  for  the  cost  per  pupil  is  really  much  less  than  the 
cost  in  small  and  widely  separated  schools." 

SUMMARY  OF  OBJECTIONS. 

'^1.  Depreciation:  decreased  value  of  farms  in  districts  where 
schools  are  closed. 

"2.  Dislike  to  send  young  children  to  school  far  from  home,  away 
from  the  oversight  of  parents. 

"3.  Danger  to  health  and  morals;  children  obliged  to  travel  too  far 
in  cold  or  stormy  weather;  unsuitable  conveyance  or  driver;  lack  of 
proper  oversight  during  noon  hour. 

"4.  Insufficient  and  unsuitable  clothing. 

"5.  Difficulty  of  securing  a  proper  conveyance  on  reasonable  terms. 

"6.  Local  jealousy;  an  acknowledgment  that  some  other  section  of 
the  town  has  greater  advantages. 


36 


'*7.  Natural  proneness  of  some  people  to  object  to  the  removal  of 
any  ancient  landmark  or  to  any  innovation,  however  worthy  the 
measure  or  however  well  received  elsewhere." 

Some  of  these  objections  are  wholly  frivolous;  others  are  easily 
disposed  of  by  proper  forethought.  The  conveyance  and  driver 
should  be  carefully  scrutinized  by  a  constituted  person.  The  proper 
clothing  of  the  children  is  just  as  obligatory  and  has  just  as  much 
force  under  any  other  system  of  schooling.  The  oversight  of  the 
children  during  the  noon  hour  should  be  committed  to  a  matron 
qualified  for  the  office. 

Experience  has  proven  that  property  in  towns  committed  to  this 
plan  has  risen,  and  people  have  been  attracted  to  the  vicinity  by  the 
educational  facilities  and  the  influences  growing  out  from  them. 

That  consolidation  through  transportation  has  made  progress,  is 
shown  by  the  tabulation  of  expenses  for  the  last  ten  years,  as  given 
in  the  sixty-second  report  of  the  State  Board  of  Education  of  Mass.: 

AGGREGATE  COST  OF  CONVEYANCE  FOR  THE  STATE. 


Year. 

Amount  ex- 
pended. 

Year. 

Amount  ex- 
pended. 

1888-89 

$22,118  38 
24,145  12 
30,648  68 
38,726  07 
50, 590  41 

1893-94 

$63,617  68 
76, 608  29 
91,136  11 
105,317  13 
123,032  41 

1S89-90      

1894-95      . . 

1890-91      

1895-S€      

1891-92,'    

1896-97      

1S92-93 

1897-98 

MORE  CONSOLIDATION  ASKED  FOR. 

^^As  the  law  has  extended  the  minimum  length  of  the  school  year 
to  thirty-two  weeks,  a  number  of  schools  will  not  be  able  to  maintain 
themselves  without  the  co-operation  of  the  State  and  town,  on  ac- 
count of  added  expense."  Jn  giving  these  somewhat  extended  details 
of  the  practical  bearings  of  the  plan  of  consolidation  and  centraliza- 
tion of  schools  in  Massachusetts,  the  purpose  is  to  bring  out  the  most 
salient  points  of  the  movement  from  the  beginning.  Particular  at- 
tention is  called  to  the  fact  that  the  reports  quoted  from,  represent 
different  parts  of  the  State  and  different  industries  and  conditions, 
showing  that  there  is  great  unanimity  and  agreement  all  over  the 
State  among  officials  and  educators. 

In  order  to  reach  an  element  not  so  prominently  represented  in 
these  reports  an  effort  was  made  to  obtain  an  expression  of  opinion 
(for  publication)  from  patrons  and  teachers  of  elementary  grades,  and 
in  a  few  cases  of  directors  or  committees  throughout  Massachusetts. 


37 

SUMMARY  FROM  PRIVATE  LETTERS  RECEIVED. 

Oonsolidation  in  the  country  districts  has  brought: 

1.  Better  education  and  more  desire  for  it  among  children  of  school 
age. 

2.  More  interest  in  schools  by  patrons. 

3.  Better  teachers  and  greater  sympathy  between  schools  and 
homes. 

4.  Better  health. 

To  the  question  as  to  subordinate  or  secondary  effects  the  follow- 
ing replies  were  received: 

1.  "Better  prepared  candidates  for  the  normal  schools  and  col- 
leges, so  that  in  some  cases  the  latter  enter  the  sophomore  class  and 
the  former  can  complete  the  course  in  from  one  to  three  years  less 
time  than  under  the  old  system. 

2.  "We  think  our  children  have  gained  in  many  ways  in  the  last 
five  years.  We  have  a  splendid  graded  school,  and  those  of  the 
graduate  pupils  who  apply  for  situations  as  clerks  and  positions  of 
responsibility  are  more  in  demand  than  such  as  have  not  had  the 
training.     But  we  may  be  exceptionally  fortunate  in  our  teachers. 

3.  "Social  influence  has  been  widened  and  reflects  itself  in  reading 
circles,  clubs  for  mutual  improvement  in  various  directions,  specially 
in  the  domestic  arts.  In  matters  of  taste,  decoration  of  homes,  asso- 
ciation of  adults,  pupils  and  teachers  in  drawing,  embroidery,  pho- 
tography and  music.  Have  lectures  on  various  subjects  that  come 
within  the  range  of  our  course  of  study.  Children  are  encouraged 
to  make  collections  of  leaves  of  trees,  plants  and  insects.  Nothing 
of  this  kind  was  done — it  was  not  possible  under  the  old  plan.'-  (The 
writer  of  the  letter  from  which  the  above  was  taken  is  located  in  a 
town  of  several  thousand  inhabitants, 'noted  for  its  progressive 
spirit.) 

4.  "The  country  itself  has  materially  benefitted. 

(a)  Roads  are  better.     We  couldn't  have  the  school  if  we 
didn't  improve  the  roads. 

(b)  Gardens  and  grounds  are  improved,  and  visible  attempts 
made  in  utilizing  what  formerly  w^as  waste  ground.'^ 

With  three  exceptions,  in  upwards  of  fifty  letters  the  plan  is  ap- 
proved, sometimes  emphatically. 

Conveyance  in  Massachusetts  is  not  fully  provided  for  by  the  State. 
The  school  committee  is  the  judge  of  the  distance  or  of  the  configura- 
tion of  the  country  or  any  other  question  that  may  arise  in  rendering 
aid  in  this  direction.  In  some  cases  parents  themselves,  for  a  con- 
sideration, carry  their  children — this  consideration  is  settled  by  the 
committee — in  others,  advantage  is  taken  of  milk  wagons  or  any 
public  conveyance.     Whatever  method  is  pursued,  the  committee  is. 


is 

to  an  extent,  held  responsible  for  the  safety'  of  the  child.    No  discrim- 
'ination  is  made  in  regard  to  sex  or  favoritism  shown  in  any  way. 

Owing  to  the  limitations  of  the  act  authorizing  transportation 
and  the  occasional  objections  of  parents  ''to  do  their  share"  toward 
the  minimizing  of  difficulties,  such  a-s  extreme  isolation,  bad  roads, 
poverty,  etc.,  many  perplexities  have  arisen.  These,  however,  need 
not  be  discussed  here,  as  we  have  to  do  more  particularly  with  the 
educational  phase  of  the  question.  A  recent  statement  and  resolu- 
tions from  the  grand  jury  of  Franklin  county  covers  much  of  this 
grcfund  and  will  serve  a  good  purpose  in  other  States  where  similar 
problems  may  arise.     (See  Appendix.) 

CONSOLIDATION  IN  CONNECTICUT. 

The  example  set  by  Massachusetts  was  followed  by  Connecticut  in 
1889. 

In  1893,  the  towns  of  the  State  were  authorized  to  appropriate  and 
expend  money  to  convey  children  to  and  from  the  public  schools. 
(The  text  of  the  law  is  given  in  Appendix.) 

The  substance  of  the  law  relating  to  Town  Management  (the  term 
given  to  express  consolidation)  is: 

1.  The  town  for  school  purposes  hecomes  one  district.  The  exist- 
ing district  lines  become  lines  of  attendance,  and  may  be  changed 
to  suit  the  exigencies  of  school  attendance. 

2.  Town  officers^  called  the  town  coinmittce^  manage  the  school. 

3.  School  houses  become  the  property  of  the  town. 

4.  The  expense  of  schools  are  jpaid  directly  by  the  town  instead  of  in- 
directly  through  the  districts. 

5.  The  hit;siness  pertaining  to  schools  is  transcribed  in  town  meeting. 

It  should  be  noted:  • 

1.  Schools  are  not  abolished  nor  united.  Under  the  general  law 
which  applies  to  all  towns,  the  school  visitors  can  close  any  school 
and  send  the  scholars  to  adjoining  districts. 

2.  Schools  are  managed  just  as  roads,  bridges  and  the  poor  are 
managed — by  the  town. 

6.  The  town  does  not  assume  district  debts.  Districts  can  main- 
tain their  organization  for  the  purpose  of  paying  debts,  or  the  town 
can  by  vote  assume  the  debts,  but  the  vote  to  consolidate  does  not 
carry  either  plan. 

TOWN  MANAGEMENT  IS  ECONOMICAL. 

"The  towns  acting  under  this  system,  spend  less  for  each  scholar 
in  attendance  than  the  average  for  the  State.  It  cannot  be  said 
that  school  expenses  will  be  less,  but  it  can  be  confidently  asserted 
that  the  same  sum  will  produce  better  results.  The  object  of  the 
school  system  is  to  educate  the  most  children  in  the  best  manner, 


39 

in  the  shortest  time,  and  the  town  management  is  the  most  economi- 
cal plan  of  working  to  this  end.  Wages  of  teachers  can  conform  to 
skill  and  experience.  Repairs  can  be  made  so  as  to  prevent  waste. 
The  schools  managed  as  town  institutions  are  of  sufficient  importance 
to  secure  interested  care.  A  current  of  vitality  is  sent  through 
every  part  of  the  educational  machine;  a  new  bond  is  formed  and  iso- 
lation ceases  to  contine  and  crush  the  education  of  children.  ~ There 
is  co-ordination,  a  working  together  of  all  the  parts  to  a  fit  end." 

(The  above  is  taken  from  Sec.  Hiens'  condensed  report — Town  Man- 
agement of  Schools.) 

Attention  is  called  to  the  completeness  of  the  law  regulating  the 
consolidation  of  schools  and  transportation  of  children  in  Connecti- 
cut. Under  the  twenty-seven  sections  are  treated  every  bearing  that 
can  come  into  the  situation,  especially  the  manner  of  holding  elec- 
tions on  the  question.  Every  possible  point  seems  to  have  been 
considered,  so  that  the  liberty  of  the  individual  or  the  independence 
of  a  community  should  not  be  trenched  upon.  As  regard  transporta- 
tion, the  authority  was  largely  permissive.  *  *  *  r^i^Q 
change  was  found  to  work  well  and  also  a  gain  economically. 

Taking  the  town  of  Enfield  as  an  illustration,  the  following  schools 
were  abolished : 

No.  12,  with  an  average  attendance  for  the  previous  four  years 
of  eleven  scholars,  cost  the  town  |267.25  in  1893. 

No.  10,  with  an  average  attendance  for  four  years  of  seven  scholars, 
cost  1278.15  in  1893. 

No.  9,  average  attendance  for  four  years  of  thirteen  scholars,  cost 
1277.96  in  1893. 

No.  6,  average  attendance  for  four  years  of  thirteen  scholars,  cost 
1338.00  in  1893. 

No.  11,  average  attendance  for  four  years  of  six  scholars,  cost 
1253.15. 

Here  were  six  schools,  with  an  aggregate  average  attendance  of 
sixty-two  scholars,  costing  the  town  |1,689.55  for  the  school  year. 
To  transport  these  scholars  for  the  year  1894,  it  cost  |1,045.00,  a  net 
gain  of  1644.55.  This  saving  in  money  is  an  item  well  worth  consid- 
ering, but  more  important  still  is  the  fact,  that  we  have  placed  these 
scholars  in  schools  where  the  advantages  in  all  ways  are  superior  to 
their  old  schools. 

The  summary,  as  regards  conveyance  of  children,  taken  from  a 
tabulated  statement  in  the  Report  of  Board  of  Education  for  1900, 
is  of  interest: 
1    The  number  of  schools  closed, 85 

2.  The  number  of  scholars  conveyed, 773 

3.  The  expense, |10,752  38 


40 

In  reply  to  the  question  if  the  plan  was  satisfactory,  the  table 
shows: 

Not  replying  directly,  13 

Satisfactory, 21 

Satisfactory  to  ^'most,"  or  "generally,*' 12 

Not  satisfactory, 3 

In  reply  to  inquiry  whether  beneficial  to  schools; 

Not  replying  directly,  15 

Beneficial,  33 

Not  beneficial, 1 


The  financial  arrangements  include: 

Payments  to  parents  by  town,  dependent  upon  distance  or  attend 
ance. 

Payment  of  car  fare  (or  other  public  conveyance)  by  town. 
Town  hires  horse  and  carriage  by  day. 
Town  owns  vehicle  and  hires  driver.  * 

Town  contracts  with  individuals  by  day  or  year. 

Facts  for  the  two  years  reported: 


Year. 


1897-8, 


to 

^ 

£ 

G 

•o 

fe 

n 

J3 

o 

o 

o 

o-o 

t^ 

U-Z 

u>> 

z 

zi 

z^ 

6 

£| 

p 

3 

3  o 

D  o 

z 

z 

Z 

44 

84 

849 

49 

85 

773 

$n,416  2" 
10,752  3S 


CONSOLIDATION  IN  NEW  HAMPSHIRE. 

There  is  probably  not  another  State  so  beset  with  difficulties  as 
regards  public  school  education,  as  the  sturdy,  rock-ribbed  little 
State  of  New  Hampshire,  the  paradise  of  the  tourist  and  of  the  manu- 
facturer. To  the  traveler  from  the  southern  and  middle  States 
accustomed  to  the. softer  outlines  of  his  native  landscape,  the  per- 
petually recurring  query  is:  How  are  these  dwellers  amid  Nature's 
fastnesses  reached  for  purposes  of  education. and  social  culture?  The 
towering  hills,  overhanging  cliffs,  streams,  lakes  and  forests  which 
give  the  State  its  well-deserved  title  of  "The  Switzerland  of  America," 
would  seem  to  debar  the  communities  sheltered  among  them  from 
ordinary  rules  of  access  and  intercourse.     Yet,  from  amid  these 


recesses  of  valley  and  hill  have  come  men  and  w^men  noted  for  the 
highest  qualities  of  the  human  mind. 

Here  the  consolidation  of  the  outlying  schools,  reduced  in  num- 
bers by  the  city-ward  tendency,  became  a  self-evident  necessity. 
Several  causes  combined  to  make  it  the  only  available  resource: 
/l.  Inaccessibility  and  vigorous  climatic  conditions,  making  long 
distances  for  children  an  impossibility. 

2.  The  lack  of  trained  teachers,  who  naturally  preferred  the  higher 
salaries  and  more  genial  surroundings  of  greater  centers  of  popula- 
tion. 

3.  The  constant  demand  for  labor  in  the  numerous  factories  and 
business  enterprises,  so  that  the  children  of  the  poor  were  put  to 
work  in  the  face  of  humanitarian  protest  and  often  of  legislative  ac- 
tion. This  subject,  however,  does  not  come  within  the  range  of 
this  article  except  as  incidentally  showing  how  consolidation,  com- 
pulsory school  attendance  and  the  necessary  supervision  growing  out 
of  the  case,  go  hand  in  hand  toward  removing  evils  sometimes 
thought  to  be  beyond  ren^edy. 

(From  report  and  private  communication  from  Superintendent  of 
Education  of  New  Hampshire:) 

"The  city  of  Dover  contains  about  2,000  children.  Formerly  had 
ten  rural  schools,  from  one  and  one-half  to  five  miles  from  center. 
Six  of  these  have  been  closed  and  children  are  transported  daily  to 
and  from  city  graded  schools,  at  an  expense  to  the  city  of  about 
|1,700  annually.     The  city  thus  saves  about  |1.000  per  annum. 

"The  small  children  are  placed  in  the  same  building,  and  a  matron 
employed  for  a  nominal  sum  to  take  charge  of  them  during  the  noon 
intermission,  while  the  teacher  is  absent." 

Results: — 

1.  Economy. 

2.  Better  teachers. 

3.  Better  supervision. 

4.  Greater  regularity  of  attendance  and  greater  punctuality. 

5.  Better  educational  spirit  in  and  out  of  the  school. 

6.  (On  the  community  withi«  limits  affected  by  transportation) — 
Better  roads,  literary  organization,  local  enterprises. 

The  New  Hampshire  State  law  allows  25  per  cent,  of  school  money 
to  be  used  for  conveying  children  to  and  from  school.  The  ex- 
penditures vary  from  1  to  24  per  cent.  Tradition,  habit  and  natural 
conservatism  cause  some  opposition  to  the  plan.  Some  towns  pay 
the  children,  living  at  a  certain  distance  from  school,  a  few  cents 
per  mile,  and  leave  individuals  to  determine  the  manner  of  con- 
veyance for  themselves,  governing  the  payment  by  the  attendance 
record  of  the  school  registers. 


42 

(From  the  Report  of  Public  Instruction  of  New  Hampshire:) 
"In  three  given  rural  schools,  the  aggregate  enrolment  is  fifteen 
and  the  three  teachers  are  receiving  salaries  at  the  rate  of  |906.00 
per  year,  or  an  average  of  |66.40  per  pupil  on  the  total  enrolment. 
The  other  expenses  paid  by  the  school  committee  for  the  three  schools 
brings  up  the  amount  to  |1,000.00,  or  an  average  annual  cost  of  |73.33 
for  each  of  these  fifteen  children,  not  one  of  whom  is  of  a  grade 
equal  to  the  higher  grammar  school  classes." 

It  may  be  seen  how  the  State  was  literally  forced  by  existing  condi- 
tions, which  possibly  could  not  be  paralleled  in  any  other  State,  to 
try  some  other  way  of  bringing  the  State  appropriation  to  the  child 
in  profitable  form. 

The  law  in  New  Hampshire  does  not  make  it  obligatory  upon  the 
committee  to  convey  any  children  to  school.  It  is  permissive  only. 
In  all  the  cited  cases  the  people  are  better  satisfied  than  they  would 
be  with  an  independent  school,  under  the  former  system. 

The  same  system  as  presented  in  these  three  representative  States 
prevails  in  Vermont,  Maine  and  Rhode  Island.  In  each  one,  account 
has  been  taken  in  necessary  legislation  of  many  varying  circum- 
stances in  what  may  be  termed  the  material  environment  of  the 
population,  such  as  pursuits  and  industries,  number  of  wage  earners 
and  other  considerations,  which  will  readily  occur  to  the  rational 
inquirer.  Such  considerations  affect  most,  that  part  of  the  system 
which  falls  under  the  necessity  of  the  conveyance  of  the  children. 

In  a  number  of  other  States  attention  has  been  given  to  the  same 
method  of  counteracting,  to  some  extent,  the  outflow  of  the  country 
population,  and  the  movement  is  progressing-  more  or  less  rapidly 
in  parts  of  New  York  and  Ohio.  -The  experiment — if  experiment  it 
may  still  be  called,  since  it  has  become  an  acknowledged  success — 
now  going  on  in  Northwestern  Ohio  is  of  great  interest,  as  to  some 
minds,  the  more  recent  movement  might  have  greater  weight  than 
those  of  an  earlier  period. 

(Extracts  from  the  report  of  Mr.  L.  E.  Morrison,  Superintendent, 
of  Kingsville,  Ashtabula  county,  for  1895-96:) 

"The  new  school  system,  which  is  known  as  the  Kingsville  system 
of  education,  has  been  formulated  and  introduced  with  marked 
success. 

"By  this  system  the  pupils  of  the  sub-districts  are  given  the  same 
advantages  for  obtaining  an  education  as  the  village  pupils,  and 
this  result  has  been  obtained  without  working  any  disadvantage  to 
the  village  pupils,  for  we  have  been  enabled  to  open  a  new  room 
and  supply  another  teacher  in  the  village  schools,  thus  reducing  the 
number  of  grades  in  each  room  and  giving  all  the  pupils  better  school 
advantages. 


43  . 

"The  pupils  of  the  sub-districts  have  not  only  been  given  the  ad- 
vantage of  more  extended  associations  and  larger  classes  with  which 
to  recite,  but  they  have  also  the  advantages  of  a  school  where  the 
teacher  has  fewer  recitations  and  can  give  more  time  and  attention  to 
each  recitation;  thus,  the  pupil's  progress  is  much  more  rapid  than 
is  possible  in  a  school  where  there  are  three  times  as  many  classes 
and  one-sixth  the  number  of- pupils.  *  *  *  It  is  a  pleas- 
ure to  note  that  the  attendance  in  the  sub-districts  that  have  availed 
themselves  of  the  new  system,  has  increased  from  50  to  150  per  cent, 
in  some  cases,  and  a  larger  increase  in  all  cases.  The  daily  attend- 
ance in  the  same  sub-districts  has  increased  from  50  or  60  per  cent, 
to  90  or  95  per  cent.,  thus  increasing  greatly  the  returns  from  the 
school  fund  invested.  This  has  been  accomplished  at  a  saving  of 
more  than  one  thousand  dollars  to  the  taxpayers  in  the  three  years. 

"Since  the  schools  were  centralized  the  incidental  expenses  have 
decreased  from  |800  to  |1,100  per  year,  to  from  |400  to  |600  per  year. 
All  other  expenses  have  also  decreased,  which  may  be  seen  from  the 
following  table: 

EXPENDITURES  OF  THE  BOARD  OF  EDUCATION  OF  KINGSVILLE,  OHIO. 

1889-90,    13,248  05 

1890-91,    3,716  23 

1891-92, 3,183  54 

Total  for  three  years, |10,147  82 

1892-93,    |3,153  44 

1893-94^    3,072  73 

1894-95,    2,831  21 

Total  for  three  years, |9,059  37 


"In  giving  these  figures  we  have  deducted  the  |600,  with  interest, 
which  was  borrowed  in  1889,  and  has  been  paid  during  the  past  three 
years." 

(Extracts  from  the  report  of  Mr.  J.  R.  Adams,  Superintendent  of 
Madison  township,  Lake  county,  O. :) 

"Acting  upon  my  suggestion,  the  board,  having  in  view  only  the 
best  interest  of  the  children  for  whom  our  schools  exist,  voted  to  con- 
solidate three  sub-districts  at  North  Madison,  No.  16  and  No.  3  with 
No.  12,  and  also  three  at  Unionville,  No.  10  and  No.  11  with  No.  4, 
arrangements  being  made  with  the  school  board  of  Harpersfield 
township  whereby  the  pupils  of  sub-district  No.  1  of  said  township 
might  attend  the  school  of  Unionville  upon  payment  by  the  Board 


-     44 

of  Education  of  Harpersfleld  to  the  Board  of  Madison  township  the 
sum  of  1140  tuition. 

''Our  school  opened  with  two  teachers  and  with  an  attendance  of 
ninetv-three  pupils.  From  No.  10,  in  which  sub-district  there  had 
been  the  previous  year  an  attendance  of  only  ten  pupils,  there  came 
eighteen;  from  No.  11,  in  which  there  had  been  an  attendance  of  only 
eight  pupils,  there  came  eighteen,  and  *from  Harpersfleld  district,  in 
which  there  had  been  an  attendance  of  fourteen  pupils,  there  came 
twenty-three.  The  number  of  pupils  enrolled  in  this  school  was  107, 
with  an  average  attendance  of  seventy-three." 

Results: — 

1.  A  much  larger  per  cent,  of  enumerated  pupils  enrolled. 

2.  No  tardiness  among  the  transported  pupils. 

3.  Irregular  attendance  reduced,  the  per  cent,  of  attendance  of 
transported  pupils  from  two  sub-districts  being  each  94  per  cent.,  the 
highest  in  the  township. 

4.  Pupils  can  be  better  classified  and  graded. 

5.  No  wet  feet  or  clothing,  nor  colds  resulting  therefrom. 

6.  No  quarreling,  improper  language,  or  improper  conduct  on  the 
way  to  and  from  school. 

7.  Pupils  under  the  care  of  responsible  persons  from  the  time  they 
leave  home  in  the  morning  until  they  return  at  night. 

8.  Pupils  can  have  the  advantage  of  better  school  rooms,  better 
heated,  better  ventilated  and  better  supplied  with  apparatus,  etc. 

9.  Pupils  have  the  advantage  of  that  interest,  enthusiasm  and 
confidence  which  large  classes  always  bring. 

10.  Better  teachers  can  be  employed;  hence,  better  schools. 

11.  The  plan  insures  more  thorough  and  complete  supervision. 

12.  It  is  more  economical.  Under  the  new  plan  the  cost  of  tuition 
per  pupil,  on  the  basis  of  total  enrolment,  has  been  reduced  from 
|16  to  110.48;  on  the  basis  of  average  daily  attendance,  from  |26.66 
to  116.07.  This  statement  is  for  the  pupils  in  said  sub-districts,  Nos. 
10  and  11. 

13.  It  is  a  step  in  the  direction  toward  w^hatever  advantages  a 
well-graded  and  w^ell-clnssified  school  of  three  or  four  teachers,  has 
over  a  school  of  one  teacher  with  five  to  eight  grades,  and  with  about 
as  much  time  for  each  recitation  as  is  needed  to  properly  assign  the 
next  lesson. 

Since  this  report  was  made,  consolidated  schools  have  been  estab- 
lished at  two  other  points  in  Madison,  at  one  place  four  schools, 
at  the  other  three,  each  with  two  teachers.  Five  teams  are  employed 
to  transport  pupils,  at  a  cost  of  about  |1  a  day  for  each  team.  Every 
conveyance  carries  about  eighteen  pupils.  There  is  no  trouble  in 
transporting  the  pupils,  even  the  youngest,  three  and  one-half  miles, 
which  is  the  greatest  distance.     In  1895,  there  were  eighteen  schools 


45 

in  Madison,  with  an  average  of  260;  this  year  there  are  ten  schools, 
with  an  average  that  will  reach  over  300.  The  total  expense  will  be 
about  the  same  in  this  township  as  under  the  old  plan,  but  the  cost 
per  pupil  will  be  much  less. 

The  following  advertisement  illustrates  the  care  taken  in  Madison 
township  to  secure  suitable  transportation  for  school  children. 

NOTICE   TO   BIDDERS. 

For  Transportation  of  Pupils  of  the  Township  Schools. 

Bids  for  the  transportation  of  pupils  of  the  Madison  township 
schools  over  the  following  routes  will  be  received  at  the  office  of  the 
township  clerk  until  Friday,  July  24  at  12  M. : 

Route  A — Beginning  at  County  Line,  on  the  North  Ridge  road  and 
running  west  on  said  road  to  school,  in  District  No.  12. 

Route  B — Beginning  on  Middle  Ridge  road,  at  residence  of  N. 
Badger,  running  thence  west  on  said  road  to  the  residence  of  Rev. 
J.  Sandford,  thence  north  to  school  house,  in  District  No.  6. 

Route  D — Beginning  at  Perry  Line,  on  River  road,  and  running 
thence  east  on  said  road  to  school  house  in  District  No.  6. 

(Route  E  and  Route  F,  etc.,  similary  defined.) 

All  whose  bids  are  accepted  will  be  required  to  sign  a  contract  by 
which  they  agree: 

1.  To  furnish  a  suitable  vehicle,  with  sufficient  seating  capacity,  to 
convey  all  the  pupils  properly  belonging  to  their  route,  and  accept- 
able to  the  committee  on  transportation. 

2.  To  furnish  all  necessary  robes,  blankets,  etc.,  to  keep  the  chil- 
dren comfortable,  and  in  severe  weather  the  conveyance  must  be 
properly  heated  by  o'il  stoves  or  soap  stones. 

3.  To  provide  a  good  and  reliable  team  of  horses  and  a  driver  who 
is  trustworthy,  and  who  shall  have  control  of  all  the  pupils  while 
under  his  charge,  and  shall  be  responsible  for  their  conduct.  Said 
driver  and  team  to  be  acceptable  to  said  committee  on  transportation. 

4.  To  deliver  the  pupils  at  their  respective  stations  not  earlier 
than  8.30  A.  M.  nor  later  than  8.50  A.  M.,  and  to  leave  at  4.05  P.  M. 

Each  contractor  shall  give  bond  for  the  faithful  discharge  of  his 
contract  in  the  sum  of  |100,  with  sureties  approved  by  the  president 
and  clerk  of  the  board. 

The  committee  reserves  the  right  to  reject  any  and  all  bids. 

But  a  still  more  striking  example  of  what  consolidation  is  ac- 
complishing in  Northeastern  Ohio  is  found  in  the  schools  o|  Gustavus 
township,  Trumbull  county,  and  a  visit  to  this  place  will  amply  repay 
the  interested  inquirer,  not  only  as  to  general  methods  in  rural  school 
work,  but  will  make  ax^onvert  of  the  most  doubtful  to  the  plan. 


46 

Public  attention  was  called  to  the  experiment  progressing  in  Gus- 
tavus  township  by  an  article  which  appeared  in  the  ''National  Stock- 
man and  Farmer,"  of  February  9th,  1899,  over  the  name  of  *J.  M. 
Braden.  The  article  was  a  concise  statement  of  the  progress  and 
outlook  of  the  schools  in  which  the  new  system  was  being  tried,  and 
impressed  even  the  casual  reader  that  here  was  a  remedy  for  some 
I>resent  ills  in  county  education.  Notwithstanding  the  fact  that  the 
article  has  been  already  widely  quoted  in  addresses  and  school  re- 
ports in  this  and  other  States,  no  apology  is  needed  for  repeating  some 
of  the  statements  found  in  it. 

Prefacing  his  main  subject  with  some  forcible  truths  as  to  "the 
failure  of  the  rural  districts  to  keep  pace  with  the  rest  of  the  coun- 
try," the  writer  goes  on  to  say: 

"Gustavus  township  has  nine  sub-districts  and  one  fractional  sub- 
district.  For  over  twenty  years  there  has  been  a  varying  attend- 
ance of  pupils  per  district,  ranging  from  five  to  thirty,  with  occasion- 
ally a  full  term  of  school  taught  with  less  than  fiA^e  pupils  enrolled 
in  some  districts.  The  expense  of  running  the  schools  and  keeping 
buildings  repaired,  has  been  about  the  same  as  when  there  was  a 
full  attendance  in  all  districts.        *        *        » 

"So  favorable  have  been  the  results  of  centralization  in  other  coun- 
ties, that  last  winter  our  legislature  extended  the  privilege  to  all 
by  revising  3921  of  our  school  laws,  making  it  possible  for  the 
boards  of  education  to  bring  the  pupils  of  a  township  together  at 
some  central  point. 

''After  the  legislature  revised  the  law,  our  board  decided  to  make 
a  practical  test  of  the  new  system  and  to  that  end  passed  a  resolu- 
tion to  issue  bonds  to  the  amount  of  three  thousand  dollars  for  a 
new  school  building  and  w^ent  before  the  people  at  the  spring  elec- 
tion, w^hen  the  measure  carried. 

"After  the  spring  elections,  the  new  board  employed  an  architect, 
settled  upon  plans  for  a  building,  issued  bonds  and  purchased  a  site. 
(The  building  put  up  is  hereafter  described.) 

"The  sub-districts  were  suspended  and  the  board  divided  the  town- 
ship into  routes  for  conveying  the  pupils.  These  routes  were  let 
to  the  lowest  bidder,  the  successful  bidder  being  required  to  give 
bond  for  the  fulfilling  of  his  contract,  and  also  for  good  conduct  of 
himself  and  of  the  pupils  carried,  and  further,  to  provide  good,  com- 
fortable, well-covered  vans  in  which  to  carry  the  children. 

"Also  to  furnish  blankets  and  robes  for  the  same.  The  vans  carry, 
on  the  average,  about  twenty  pupils  each.  The  children  step  into 
the  vans  at  the  roadside  and  are  set  down  upon  the  school  grounds. 
There  is  no  tramping  through  the  mud  and  snow.  The  longest  dis- 
tance traveled  by  any  of  the  vans  is  about  six  miles  and  the  shortest 
about  three  miles.     The  average  cost  per  van  is  |1,09  (cost  has  been 


No.f. 
« :  -X — ic—^  —7  -■ 

r 

] 

1 

1 
•1 

1 

|i*/vaa       1    1 

i 

: 

•     •     r 

X 

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Ix 

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X 

--=f. 

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No.2. 
No.3. 

X 

X 
X 

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/fnr-x — 

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t 

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««                .         X      /         X    X 

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L 

No.5. 

X 

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1- 

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.     *x_ 

X 

•  *  Farm    house^  no   children. 
X  *     '^  "      with 


\-hhan<»oi7ect  schooi. 
n=  Centrai 


Hzreci-iozt    of    routes. 
Starting    •■  " 


aOALB    t    INCH    TO    THE    MILS. 


Diagram  of  Gustavus  Township,  Trumbull  County,  Ohio,  Showing-   Trans- 
portation Routes.     The  routes  pay  as  follows  : 

Route.  Amount. 

No.   1, $1  55  per  day, 

No.  2,     98  per  day, 

No.  3, 69  per  day, 

No.  4, 1  50  per  day,   

No.  5, 1  25  per  day,   

No.  6, 1  45  per  day,   

No.  7, 1  40  per  day, 

No.  8, 1  48  per  day 

No.  9, 95  per  day,   


Miles 
Travelled. 

5  miles. 
.  2>%  miles. 
,  2%  miles. 
.  5  miles. 
.  3^  miles. 
,  A^z  miles. 
.  A}4,  miles. 
.  5  miles. 
.  2>}i   miles. 


47 

changed  last  year).  Our  scliooi  lias  been  in  session  several  months 
and  we  are  pleased  with  the  results. 

''But  there  are  far  better  results  to  come,  when  we  remember  that 
with  the  centralizing  of  our  schools  will  come  a  regularly  graded 
school,  with  all  modern  facilities  for  the  advancement  of  our  youth, 
until  our  schools  will  stand  upon  an  equal  footing  with  the. high 
schools  of  our  cities/  The  poor  man  who  has  only  been  able  to  send 
his  children  to  the  district  schools,  will  have  the  pleasure  of  seeing 
his  children  securing  the  best  education  that  can  be  provided  by 
the  township." 

Following  the  interest  created  by  the  above  article,  which  pre- 
sented the  subject  in  the  most  forcible  and  practical  light,  in  a  State 
where  rural  conditions  are  similar  to  Pennsylvania,  a  visit  for  per- 
sonal inspection  of  the  schools  was  made  November  8th  of  this  year. 

RESULTS  OF  INSPECTION. 

Gustavus  township  furnishes  possibly  the  most  satisfactory  ex- 
ample of  consolidation  in  a  Avholly  rural  district  that  can  be  found 
anywhere.  The  school  is  well  organized,  the  outward  bearings  of  the 
question  are  open  to  examination,  and  an  insight  is  obtained  that  no 
amount  of  theoretical  speculation  could  give.  There  is  also  the 
pleasure  of  observing  the  interest  and  enthusiasm  that  can  be  brought 
to  pervade  a  genuine  rural  school,  conducted  on  a  common  sense 
basis,  as  in  this  case,  giving  a  reflex  of  the  sincere  and  wholesome 
uplift  of  a  country  community.  To  an  unaccustomed  eye,  it  was  a 
spectacle  worth  going  far  to  see. 

The  morning  was  cold  and  stormy  and  it  was  impossible  not  to 
make  involuntary  comparison  with  other  schoo4  children  in  the  out- 
lying districts  of  Pennsylvania  making  their  way  along  muddy  roads 
to  school,  possibly  to  have  a  shivering  wait  for  the  teacher  to  open 
the  door. 

The  spirit  manifested  in  the  regular  school  work  reflects  great 
credit  upon  the  teachers,  who  seem  to  have  caught  something  of  the 
new  idea  in  teaching,  as  part  of  the  new  system.  Not  only  this,  but 
the  social  and  home  life  of  the  vicinity  has  been  touched  by  the  new 
order  of  things.  The  value  of  the  personal  equation  in  school  work 
was  never  more  fully  illustrated  than  in  the  school  of  Gustavus.  The 
whole  township  is  centralized.  It  is  wholly  a  rural  township,  the 
little  town  of  Gustavus  at  the  center  being  only  a  small  cluster  of 
houses.  A  frame  building,  with  four  rooms,  has  been  erected  at  a 
cost  of  13,000.00.  Four  teachers  are  employed.  The  superintendent 
receives  |80.00  per  month;  the  teachers  in  elementary  grades  average 
128.33  per  month.  Nine  vans  convey  the  pupils  to  and  from  the 
school. 


48 

For  the  purpose  of  keeping  up  the  present  system  of  running  the 
schools  and  paying"  oiT  the  school-house  bonds,  a  levy  is  made  of  nine 
mills  on  a  valuation  of  1370,000.00. 

Besides  the  teaching  force,  the  school  has  one  janitor,  who  attends 
to  the  care  and  heating  of  the  building.  His  salary  is  |12.50.  Ref- 
erence to  the  tabulated  report  (see  page  50),  kindly  prepared  by 
Supt.  C.  L.  Haishman,  will  give  full  information  as  to  cost,  attend- 
ance and  progress  of  the  school  since  its  establishment  in  1897. 
The  van  drivers  are  under  bonds  of  |200  for  good  conduct,  comfort 
and  safety  of  pupils,  on  the  route  to  and  from  school,  punctualiry  and 
regularity  in  transit. 

To  insure  the  proper  discharge  of  these  duties  the  board  of  direc- 
tors keep  back  one-half  nfonth's  pay  in  addition  to  taking  bonds. 


SYSTEM  OF  CONVEYANCE  POPULAR. 

Men  in  Gustavus  township  are  anxious  to  build  vans  and  to  bid 
on  contracts  to  convej  pupils.  No  trouble  has  arisen  in  any  way. 
The  vans  cost  from  sixty  to  eighty  dollars  and  are  as  comfortable 
as  they  can  be  made.  The  utmost  regularity  is  required  in  delivering 
the  children.  Four  minutes  from  the  time  the  bell  was  tapped  for 
dismissal  the  children  were  gone  in  the  vans.  Order  and  precision 
of  movement  akin  to  that  of  a  military  training  school  was  observ- 
able. No  confusion,  no  noise  or  scurrying  for  precedence  in  order  of 
going  or  for  seats  in  the  vans. 


THE  SCHOOL  TROM   ITS  EDUCATIONAL  SIDE. 


The  school  is  divided  (see  report)  into  four  grades, 
grammar,  intermediate  and  primary. 


Hiiiii  school 


STUDIES  PURSUED  IN  HIGH  SCHOOL. 


Arithmetic. 
Language. 
History. 
Physiology. 


Sophomore. 


History. 

Physical    Geography. 

Rhetoric. 

Civics. 

Algebra. 


Algebra. 

Geometry,    Plane. 
Latin    Grammar    and 
Reader   (32   weeks.) 
Literature. 


Senior. 


Physics. 

Lfitin.  Caesar,  4  books, 
Prose  Comp.  ,  (more 
added    this   year). 

Geometry,   Solid. 

Botany. 

Con^mnn  branches  re- 
viewed. 


49 


GRAMMAR  DEPARTMENT. 


D.    Grammar. 

C.    Grammar— Ad- 

B.   Grammar— Ad- 

B.  Grammar— Ad- 

vanced  Work. 

vanced  Work. 

vanced  Work. 

Reading. 

Reading. 

Reading. 

Reading. 

Spelling. 

Spelling. 

fcpelling. 

Spelling. 

Writing. 

Writing. 

Writing. 

Writing. 

Arithmetic. 

Arithmetic. 

Arithmetic. 

Arithmetic. 

Language. 

Language. 

Language. 

Language. 

Physiology  and  Nature 

Physiology     and    Na- 

Physiology. 

Geography,    Adv. 

Work. 

ture    Work. 

Geography. 

History. 

Geography. 

Geography. 

History. 

Physiology. 
Nature  Work— Revi  w 
of  Special  Courses. 

The  primary  course  leading  to  the  higher  grades  is  very  thorough 
and  covers  four  years.     (See  Appendix.) 

SPECIAL  COURSES  OP  STUDY. 

Oral  geography  for  third  year  pupils:  From  directions,  compass — 
location  of  objects,  definitions,  natural  objects,  etc. — to  State  officers, 
government,  laws,  etc. 

Physiology  in  all  grades.  From  laws  of  health,  personal  habits, 
cleanliness,  etc.,  to  effects  of  alcohol  and  narcotics,  with  special  read- 
ings on  subjects. 

Review  work  in  seventh  year  from  nervous  system  to  purit.v  of  life 
and  strength  of  purpose. 

Nature  work  for  all  grades. 

Modifications  to  suit  age  and  attainments  of  pupils. 

Special  readings  throughout  above  courses. 

In  regard  to  report,  it  should  be  noted:  The  annual  enrolment  was 
larger  under  the  old  system,  but  the  daily  attendance  w^as  less. 

Very  often  in  good  weather  the  little  children  from  four  to  six  were 
allowed  to  attend  school.  This  w^ould  bring  up  the  total  enrolment 
and  also  add  on  daily  attendance.  The  per  centage  of  attendance  on 
total  enrolment  has  increased  one-seventh,  or  15  per  cent. 

Steam  heat;  cost  for  fuel  last  year,  |50.00. 

Of  the  eight  girls  of  graduating  class,  five  got  county  certificates 
and  are  teaching.  Gustnvus  sends  sick  children  home  at  board's 
expense.     This  has  occurred  four  times  in  three  years. 


MAIL  DELIVERY. 

The  delivering  of  mail  for  the  whole  district,  while  the  term  of 
school  lasts,  is  provided  for  by  the  vans.     Before  school  is  dismissed 
the  principal  sends  one  of  the  pupils  to  the  post-office  for  the  mail. 
4 


50 

and  it  is  distributed  to  each  driver,  who  delivers  it  along  his  route. 
This  is  a  great  convenience  to  the  people  of  the  district.  The  drivers 
also  bring  in  the  mail  in  the  morning. 


GAINS  UNDKR  THE  SYSTEM. 

Better  health. 

Less  wear  and  tear  of  clothing,  shoes,  etc. 

Better  conduct,  no  profanity  or  quarreling. 

Statement  of  Supt.  Harshman  is  as  follows:  ^ 

^'Only  system  to  keep  boys  in  schools.  Under  old  system,  boys 
drop  out  before  reaching  higher  grades.  The  enthusiasm  and  in- 
terest have  so  increased,  together  with  the  more  extended  course  of 
study,  that  boys  desire  to  reap  fu*ll  benefit.'^ 


^ 


REPORT  OF  SCHOOLS  OF  GUSTAVUS  TOWNSHIP,  TRUMBULL  COUNTY, 
OHIO,  FOR  THE  YEARS  1897-1900,  ALSO  AN  ESTIMATE  OF  1901,  BASED 
ON  FIRST  TWO  MONTHS  OF  YEAR. ' 


Public    Schools   of   Gustavus    Township,    Trumbull 
Co.,     Ohio. 

Old  Plan. 

New  Plan 

Statistics  for  the  School  Years  ending  August  31,... 

1897. 

1898. 

1899. 

1900. 

1901. 

Tnf-al    pnrnlmpn*-    in    nil    ^phnols       .                      

«0 

128 

66 

1 

9 

10 
$50.00 

211 

139 

66 

2 

$7 

9 

$50.00 

$25.00 

t2 

$2,955 
0 

$2,955 

$21 

6 

8 

193 

144 

75 

1 

3 

4 

$62.50 

$25.00 

8 

$3,325 

$450 

$2,875 

$20- 

8 

S 

186 

144 

t77 

1 

I 

$80.00 

$27.50 

9 

$3,550 

$435 

$3,115 

$21 

8 

8 

♦180 

Average   daily  attendance    'n   all   schools       

•145 

Per  cent,   of  attendance  on  total  enrolment 

Number    teachers    employed    in   high    school 

Number   teachers  employed   elementary   schools,.... 
Total  number  teachers  employed  in  all  schools,...-. 
Average   wages  paid  in   high  school     

1 
3 
4 

$80.00 

Average  wages  paid   in  elementary  schools,   

T>JiimV»*>r    van«5    fnr    1  rnncjnnrtiner    niinil<? 

$24.00 
0 

$2,975 
0 

$2,975 

$21+ 

6 

$28.33 
9 

Total   cost   of  schools,    including   bonded  debt   and 
interest    paid                     ... 

$3  550 

Bonded  debt  and  interest  paid 

$420 

Net   cost   of   schools     

$3,130 

Average  cost  per  pupil  on  daily  attendance 

Number  months  of   school   in   high   school 

Number  months  of  school   in  elementary  schools,.. 

♦$21 
8 
8 

♦  Estimated  on  first  two  months  of  year. 

t  Two  sub-districts  were  hauled  to   adjoining  sub-districts. 

t  Under  new  plan  two  more  months  of  high  school. 

An  objectionable  feature  of  the  present  method  of  giving  out  con- 
tracts for  conveying  of  children,  is  the  lack  of  specific  ing  certain  con- 
tingencies that  might  arise.  Where  a  person  moves  into  a  neighbor- 
hood after  contract  is  given,  locating  beyond  a  point  limit  specified, 
the  driver  can  refuse  to  go  out  of  his  road  without  extra  compensation 
or  beyond  the  prescribed  limits,  and  the  child  is  thus  left  to  the  al- 
ternative of  going  to  meet  the  van  at  some  convenient  point  or  the 
board  is  forced  to  provide  in  some  way  for  its  transfer.  There  should 
be  in  such  cases  a  special  clause  provided  in  contracts. 


Q) 

o 


i 


f  UNIVERSITY    fj 

As  to  cost  of  building  as  on  plans  (page  — )  the  estimate  is  $3,- 
500.00.  This  would  give  a  building  large  enough  to  accommodate 
180  to  200,  or  even  220  pupils,  with  four  school  rooms  and  one  reci- 
tation room,  four  large  cloak  rooms,  extra  wide  stairs,  large  entrance 
hall,  two  large  basements  and  heater  and  storage  rooms,  all  well 
lighted;  two  outside  and  two  inside  entrances  to  basement;  girls^  and 
bojs'  basement  separate. 


EXTENSION  OP  CONSOLIDATION. 

Consolidation  has  been  found  so  satisfactory  in  Gustavus  town- 
ship, that  Greene  township,  adjoining  it  on  the  west,  has  centralized 
and  built  a  central  school  building  at  a  cost  of  |7,000.00,  in  which, 
school  is  now  being  held. 

.  Wayne  township,  Ashtabula  county,  on  the  north  of  Gustavus, 
has  voted  for  centralization,  and  they  are  now  building  a  school  to 
cost  15,000.00.  Kinsman  township,  on  the  east,  has  voted  for  cen- 
tralization and  will  build  next  summer. 

The  State  KSuperintendent  of  Illinois  and  the  County  Superintend- 
ent^ ^f  Winnebago  county.  111.,  visited  the  schools  of  Gustavus  in 
October  of  the  present  year.  During  their  visit,  the  districts  opera- 
ting under  the  centralized  system,  were  thoroughly  investigated  and 
the  conclusion  arrived  at  was  that  ''this  is  what  people  in  the  rural 
districts  have  been  waiting  for." 

Supt.  Bayliss,  of  Illinois,  says,  among  other  advantages,  "Socially, 
the  advantage  is  very  great.  It  extends  the  acquaintance  of  the 
children  and  gives  them  the  increased  interest  and  enthusiasm  and 
confidence  which  comes  from  numbers,  unites  the  people  of  the  town- 
ship and  equalizes  opportunities."  He  concludes:  "The  Ohio  plan 
can  certainly  be  introduced  to  advantage  in  many  Illinois  townships  " 
Wisconsin  and  Iowa  are  at  work  on  it.  Inquiries  have  also  come  from 
Kansas,  all  showing  that  people  are  waking  up  to  the  necessity  of 
doing  something  more  than  has  been  done  for  rural  education. 

The  board  of  education  of  Nelson  township,  Portage  county,  Ohio, 
appointed  a  committee  to  visit  Gustavus  for  the  purpose  of  investi- 
gating the  plan  of  school  centralization.  In  order  to  get  an  impar- 
tial report,  the  committee  w^as  made  up  so  as  to  represent  both  sides 
of  the  question.  In  the  course  of  this  investigation,  a  canvass  of 
the  township  was  made  for  the  purpose  of  getting  public  opinion  on 
the  subject.  Of  54  instances  interview^ed,  43  were  in  favor  of  the 
system,  4  indifferent  and  7  against.  Of  the  7  against,  6  were  without 
children  in  attendance. 

Many  circumstances  combine  to  make  Gustavus  a  typical  example 
of  successful  co-operation.     Courteous  officials,  an  enthusiastic  and 


52 

magnetic  spirit  at  the  head,  thoroughly  trained  teachers  as  assist- 
ants and  an  appreciative  community. 


Valuation   and   Tax   Rate  of   Gustavus   and 
Green   Townships. 

Tax    Rate    for    School    Purposes. 

Rate, 
Rate, 

Greene   valuation      . .              361  000 

12    mills    on    the    dollar 

The  State  appropriation  is  about  |400  for  each  township. 
Gustavus  pays  |3,000,  in  the  annual  payments  and  interest,  and 
Greene  |6,000  in  six,  which  explains  Greene's  higher  rate  of  tax. 

EXPEKIMENTS  MADE  IN  CONSOLIDATION  IN  PENNSYLVA- 
NIA. 


Some  experiments  in  the  consolidation  of  schools  have  been  made 
in  Pennsylvania.  They  have  not  been  true  tests,  however,  of  the 
practical  value  of  the  system,  being  partial  and  tentative  in  character. 
The  mere  joining  together  or  uniting  of  two  or  more  schools  for  con- 
venience or  other  reasons  of  a  temporary  kind,  is  not  consolidation  in 
the  true  sense  of  the  word.  Such  schools  as  unite  in  this  informal 
manner  can  as  readily  disunite,  and  the  good  that  has  been  gained 
will  speedily  be  lost  or  dissipated  by  a  return  to  the  old  system.  A 
school  of  this  kind,  though  it  may  answer  a  good  purpose  for  the  time 
being,  is  not  a  permanent  part  of  the  school  machinery  of  the  dis- 
trict in  which  it  exists.  It  is  merely  an  expedient.  For  this  reason, 
the  people  who  would  most  benefit  from  it  are  distrustful  of  its  ef- 
ficiency and,  in  many  cases,  actively  oppose  it. 

It  is  looked  upon  as  an  innovation,  or  one  of  the  many  ^'fads" 
foisted  upon  the  rural  school  in  modern  times.  Two  questions  from 
different  standpoints  convey  the  impression  the  question  makes  on 
the  minds  of  some.  The  first  was,  ^'will  there  be  a  whole  'system'  of 
new  books  to  get?"  The  other,  "would  the  child  be  taken  away  from 
home  altogether?"  It  is  hard  to  think  "such  things  can  be" — in 
Pennsylvania. 

It  is  really  the  simplest  of  all  ways  of  educating  by  public  in- 
struction. Less  machinery  is  connected  with  it  than  any  other,  and, 
consequently,  fewer  complications  in  the  way  of  appointing  teachers 
and  fixing  salaries.     What  is  wanted  is: 

DEFINITE    LEGISLATION. 

The  statement  has  frequently  been  made  that  Pennsylvania  has 
"law  enough  to  cover  the  case,"  in  consolidation.     This  is  not  quite 


53 

true,  or  rather  it  may  be  said  that  the  legislation  provided  falls  short 
of  the  case,  rennsjlvania  has  the  township  system;  that  is  one 
step.  The  high  school  act  of  June  28th,  1895,  is  another  step — in 
intention.     (See  Appendix.) 

If  the  provisions  of  this  act  were  fully  carried  out,  it  would  still  fall 
short  of  providing  a  higher  education  for  the  rural  districts,  for  the 
reason  that  in  very  few  townships  could  the  necessary  advance  be 
made  in  order  to  reach  the  provisions  of  that  act.  Besides,  trans- 
portation of  the  children  is  not  included  in  the  act.  The  course  of 
study  named  in  this  act  is  not  entirely  suited  to  the  wants  of  the 
rural  districts,  broadened  as  they  have  been  by  industrial  and  com- 
mercial conditions  and  by  the  more  exacting  requirements  of  the 
higher  institutions  of  learning.  Thus,  the  high  school  act  becomes 
in  effect  a  dead  letter. 

What  the  rural  school  needs  is  provision  for  a  course  of  study  at 
once  flexible  and  comprehensive  and  adapted  to  the  wants  of  the 
country,  for  the  great  class  with  agricultural  instincts  and  who, 
with  better  knowledge,  would  improve  their  surroundings,  and  for  the 
class  that  seeks  other  fields  for  enterprise.  In  the  great  majority 
of  the  rural  districts  of  our  State,  this  great  class  have  no  chance 
for  any  advanced  education  in  applied  science,  in  civil  engineering, 
in  mechanical  engineering,  in  mining  engineering  and  kindred  de- 
partments, and  A'ery  little  chance  in  any  other,  and  if  the  elementary 
course  does  not  lead  up  to  it,  they  never  can  attain  their  desires  of 
a  higher  education,  yet  the  experience  of  the  world  proves  that  from 
These  ranks,  disciplined  by  poverty  and  invigorated  by  contact  with 
nature  from  early  youth,  comes  the  greatest  part  of  the  genius  and 
talent  and*energy  of  the  world.  For  such  as  these  there  is  no  legisla- 
tion in  Pennsylvania,  the  towns  and  cities  providing  it  for  them- 
selves. 


TRANSPORTATION  OF  PUPILS. 

Under  another  act  (June  22,  1897),  partial  provision  is  made  for  the 
transportation  of  school  children  to  the  public  schools  of  the  district 
in  which  they  reside,  or  to  the  schools  of  neighboring  districts.  (See 
Appendix.) 

Section  1  ''permits  the  school  directors,  by  an  affirmative  vote  of  the 
majority,  to  provide  transportation  for  the  children  at  the  expense 
of  their  respective  districts  to  and  from  any  school  in  the  district 
in  which  the  children  have  their  residence,  or  of  neighboring  districts: 
Provided,  That  this  act  shall  apply  only  to  the  pupils  of  schools 
which  have  been  closed  by  reason  of  small  attendance,  and.  Fur- 
ther, That  it  shall  apply  only  to  pupils  having  a  greater  distance 
to  travel  or  are  placed  at  greater  inconvenience  by  such  closinjr,  and 


54 

Further,   That  the  cost. of  transportation  per  pupil  shall  not  exceed 
the  cost  of  maintaining  per  pupil  the  schools  thus  closed." 

The  limitations  and  divisions  of  this  act,  as  it  stands,  open  the  way 
to  differences  of  opinion  over  the  question  as  to  the  precise  meaning: 

1.  Of  what  shall  constitute  a  small  enough  number  of  children  in 
attendance  in  order  to  make  obligatory  the  closing  of  a  school. 

2.  As  to  what  is  the  exact  distance  which  makes  this  clause  ap- 
plicable to  a  given  case. 

In  regard  to  a  similar  ambiguity  as  to  what  a  "reasonable  distance 
is,"  Secretary  Hill  has  this  to  say:  "Little  children  should  not  be 
made  to  walk  over  a  mile,  although  older  children  of  grammar 
school  age,  may  walk  a  mile  and  a  half,  or  even  more. 

"If,  for  little  children  the  mile  lies  through  lonely,  unfrequented, 
wooded  or  diJBScult  roads,  it  would  be  too  great  or  too  dangerous  a 
distance  for  them  to  walk. 

"The  State  Board  of  Education  in  Massachusetts  is  given  no  au- 
thority to  decide  what  a  reasonable  walking  distance  is.  Whatever 
the  school  committee  (board  of  directors)  decides  to  regard  as  a 
reasonable  distance  for  school  children  to  walk,  that  is  the  distance 
they  must  walk," 

In  a  lengthy  analysis  of  the  law  of  Massachusetts  relating  to  trans- 
portation of  children.  Secretary  Hill  carefully  defines  the  statutory 
meaning  of  "support,"  as  it  is  variously  used  to  include  or  exclude 
the  right  by  the  school  committee  to  expend  money  for  this  purpose. 
He  concludes  by  saying:  "It  needs  to  be  stated  once  more,  however, 
that  whatever  questions  may  arise  as  to  the  authority  of  the  school 
committee  to  expend  money  for  conveyance,  such  questions  the  com- 
mittee must  decide  for  itself,  in  the  light  of  such  facts  and  principles 
as  are  at  its  disposal."  (Showing  that  doubt  has  not  been  resolved.) 
Comparison  of  the  laws  alluded  to  above  with  that  of  Ohio  on  the 
same  point  shows  the  latter  has  simplified  the  question  so  that  little 
difficulty  can  arise. 

In  New  Hampshire,  where  children  or  parents  are  in  some  cases 
allowed  a  certain  sum  per  mile  in  payment  of  transportation,  "the 
money  is  frequently  spent  for  other  purposes,  and  the  children  walk." 
The  law  of  this  State  provides  that  town  school  boards  may  use  a 
portion  of  the  school  money,  not  exceeding  twenty-five  per  cent.,  for 
conveying  children  to  and  from  schools. 

In  Vermont,  a  late  law  is  to  the  effect  that,  upon  the  application  of 
ten  taxpayers  in  any  town,  the  school  directors  shall  furnish  trans- 
portation to  any  and  all  children  residing  one  and  a  half  miles  or  more 
from  any  school,  but  the  aggregate  cost  shall  not  exceed  twenty-five 
per  cent,  of  all  the  school  moneys. 

The  New  York  law  of  1896  provides  for  a  tax  for  conveyance  of 
pupils  by  vote  of  the  inhabitants. 


55 

A  law  of  1894  in  New  Jersey  and  one  of  1897  in  Nebraska  provides 
for  transportation  of  pupils. 

A  provision  of  the  school  law  of  Connecticut-authorizes  town  school 
boards  to  unite  schools  ''when,  in  their  judgment,  the  number  of  pu- 
pils is  so  small  that  the  maintenance  of  a  separate  school  is  inex- 
pedient," and  provide  transportation  for  the  pupils. 

The  most  striking  instance  of  successful  consolidation  produced 
and  the  only  way  of  satisfying  doubts  and  preventing  disputes  among 
patrons  of  a  school  where  this  system  comes  into  use,  is  in  the  con- 
solidation and  centralization  of  the  whole  township.  The  larger 
schools,  as  the  smaller,  are  equalized.  The  school  becomes  a  central 
point  of  interest  for  all  the  people  of  the  township.  There  are  good, 
bad  and  indifferent  pupils,  circumstances,  degrees  of  intelligence 
and  other  factors  from  all  parts  brought  together,  treated  by  the 
same  methods,  taught  by  the  same  teachers,  under  the  same  human- 
izing and  elevating  influences  of  a  school  representing  all  the  ele- 
ments of  a  given  district. 

Consolidation,  to  be  successful,  must  be  made  to  mean  centraliza- 
tion and  transx>ortation.  The  boundaries  of  the  township  are  the 
natural  limits  of  such  a  measure,  but  under  careful  and  well  defined 
restrictions,  adjacent  schools  from  other  districts  could  be  united 
under  one  central  school. 

The  school  should  not  consist  of  less  than  three  teachers,  the 
number  above  this  depending  on  circumstances,  over  which  the  board 
of  directors  should  have  full  control. 

-  The  drafting  of  a  course  of  study  suited  to  the  requirements  of 
the  farm  and  of  the  general  conditions  of  rural  life — for  the  class  that 
stays  and  the  class  that  goes — should  be  delegated  to  a  committee  of 
intelligent  and  skilful  educators,  appointed  for  the  purpose  by  the 
Governor  of  the  State. 

The  functions  of  the  State  Medical  Board  are  not  more  important 
to  the  welfare  of  the  public  than  such  a  committee  would  represent. 

Consolidation  should  be  universal  in  all  rural  districts  where 
facilities  for  higher  education  do  not  exist.  There  should  be  no 
partition  of  sections,  or  districts  in  townships.  This  is  the  easiest, 
cheapest,  the  simplest  way  to  consolidate  the  schools.  The  twentieth 
century  has  this  question  to  meet  and  solve. 

NECESSARY  LEGISLATION. 

An  act  could  be  framed  to  meet  the  requirements,  either  by  amend- 
ing or  supplementing  existing  acts,  or  by  drawing  up  a  new  one  on 
wholly  new  bases.  Such  an  act  should  be  so  clear  that  no  misunder- 
standing could  arise.  It  should  provide  for  the  transportation  of 
all  the  children  of  a  township  of  school  age  without  defining  limits. 


56 

as  in  bad  weather  or  in  the  case  of  young  and  delicate  children,  even 
a  small  distance  would  make  attendance  difficult,  and  if  transporta- 
tion is  provided  for  the  more  distant  who,  in  some  cases  are  more 
rugged,  and  an  additional  nearby  pupil  would  add  little  to  the  duties 
of  the  drivers  and  jealousies  and  bickerings  would  be  avoided  there- 
by. The  act  should  exactly  define  the  terms  and  conditions  of  the 
extent  and  amount  of  consolidation  contemplated. 

The  act  should  provide  for  the  debts  and  disposition  of  the  school 
houses  abolished,  and  for  the  building  of  new  ones,  if  such  are 
required,  and  for  the  purchase  of  more  school  ground.  The  act 
should  incorporate  with  its  provisions  the  new  course  of  study  and 
for  all  special  features  connected  with  it  differing  from  the  features 
of  the  present  law.  The  act  should  provide  for  the  submission  of 
the  question  to  the  vote  of  the  people  of  the  township  so  desiring, 
method  of  voting,  time  and  conditions  relating  to  ballots  cast  being 
distinctly  named. 

Such  an  act  should  go  before  the  people  at  the  spring  elections. 

RECAPITULATION. 

1.  Consolidation,  centralization  and  transportation  go  together. 

2.  Partial  consolidation  in  a  township  and  limited  transportation 
do  little  toward  providing  a  remedy  for  the  educational  needs  of  the 
rural  districts.  The  whole  township  should  be  centralized — either 
at  one  or  more  points,  according  to  number  of  children  of  school  age 
or  of  extent  of  area. 

.  3.  Consolidation  in  the  rural  districts  would  bring: 

(a)  Concentration  of  resources. 

(b)  Extension  of  education. 

(c)  Greater  attendance. 

(d)  Greater  educational  spirit  in  children  and  adults. 

(e)  Fit  the  class  that  goes  for  higher  positions  and  the  class 
that  stays  for  uplifting  rural  interests. 

4.  Would  have  a  reflective  influence  in  health,  in  morals,  in  intel- 
lectual achievement,  in  material  progress. 


THE  SCHOOL  GARDEN  AN  ADJUNCT  OF  RURAL  EDUCATION. 


There  is  probably  no  source  of  Nature  Study  in  its  elementary 
forms,  at  once  so  accessible  and  attractive,  as  the  study  of  plants  by 
means  of  a  garden  on  the  school  grounds.     In  the  country,  where 


57 

open  space  could  be  easily  had  and  water  and  fertilizing  material 
easily  and  cheaply  obtained,  no  difficulty  is  in  the  way  to  prevent  the 
practical  success  of  a  school  garden.  Other  countries  have  led  the 
way  in  providing  realistic  object  lessons  in  botany  and  practical  hor- 
ticulture. In  many  places  in  Europe,  school  grounds,  instead  of 
being  given  up  to  play,  are  utilized  to  supply  materials  for  study  in 
the  school  room.  The  authorities  appreciate  the  training  which 
results  from  pruning,  budding  and  grafting  trees,  plowing,  hoeing 
and  fertilizing  land,  hiving  bees  and  raising  silk  worms.  This  system, 
modified  to  suit  the  locality,  runs  through  the  entire  educational 
structure,  down  to  the  most  elementary  grade. 

(Extract  from  an  article  in  Apple  ton's  Popular  Science  Monthly, 
February,  1898,  by  Henry  L.  Clapp:) 

^'In  1 890,  there  were  nearly  eight  thousand  school  gardens  for  prac- 
tical instruction  in  rearing  trees,  vegetables  and  fruits  in  Austria. 
The  Austrian  public  school  law  reads:  'In  every  school  a  gymnastic 
ground,  a  garden  for  the  teacher,  according  to  the  circumstances  of 
the  community,  and  a  place  for  the  purposes  of  agriculture  experi- 
ment are  to  be  created.  School  inspectors  must  see  to  it  that  (the 
italics  are  ours)  in  ihe  country  schools^  school  gardens  shall  he  pro- 
vided for  corresponding  agricultural  instruction  in  all  that  relates 
to  the  soil^  and  that  the  teacher  shall  make  himself  skillful  in  such 
instruction.  Instruction  in  natural  history  is  indispensable  to  suit- 
ably establish  school  gardens.'         *         *         * 

"In  Sweden,  as  long  ago  as  1871,  twenty-two  thousand  children  re- 
ceived instruction  in  horticulture  and  tree-planting,  and  each  of  two 
thousand  and  sixteen  schools  had  for  cultivation,  a  piece  of  land 
varying  from  one  to  twelve  acres. 

''Still  more  significant,  is  the  recent  establishment  of  many  school 
gardens  in  southern  Russia.  In  one  province,  227  schools  out  of  a 
total  of  501  have  school  gardens,  whose  whole  area  is  283  acres.  In 
1895,  these  gardens  contained  111,000  fruit  trees  and  238,300  planted 
forest  trees.  In  them,  the  schoolmasters  teach  tree^  vine,  grain, 
garden,  silk  worm  and  bee  culture.  They  are  supported  by  small 
grants  of  money  from  the  country  and  district  councils.  In  different 
provinces  of  central  Russia  the  system  likewise  obtains." 

The  advantages  of  these  gardens  have  been  found  to  be  so  great 
in  the  country  that  many  of  the  cities  have  adopted  the  idea. 

"Since  1877  every  public  school  in  Berlin,  Prussia,  has  been  regu- 
larly supplied  with  plants  for  study  every  week,  elementary  schools 
receiving  specimens  of  four  different  species  and  secondary  schools 
six.  During  the  summer,  at  six  o'clock  in  the  morning,  two  large 
wagons  start  from  the  school  gardens,  loaded  with  c^ittings  packed 
and  labeled  for  the  different  schools.  Teachers  take  their  classes 
into  the  school  gardens  for  lessons  in  botany. 


5S 

"The  gardens  ir  Berlin  lack  many  advantages  to  be  found  in  the 
country  garden.  Comparatively  few  children  can  see  the  plants 
growing  from  seed  to  seed,  or  growing  at  all.  The  butterdies,  beetles 
and  other  insects  which  are  consta'^tly  at  work  on  growing  plants 
come  to  the  notice  of  only  a  few  children;  consequently,  their  habits 
can  not  be  known  to  many.  The  nature  of  annuals  and  biennials,  the 
growth  of  plants  from  week  to  week,  the  results  of  varying  condi- 
tions of  soil,  light,  heat  and  moisture,  which  are  so  necessary  to  a 
broad  and  sound  understanding  of  plant  growth,  cannot  be  properly 
understood  if  reliance  is  to  be  placed  on  cut  specimens  alone." 

France  has  long  seen  the  force  of  these  conclusions  and  provided 
opportunities  for  practical  instruction  in  all  that  relates  to  increase 
of  agricultural  products.  In  the  practice  of  agriculture,  France  leads 
the  world.  In  the  last  quarter  of  a  century  she  has  double  the  pro- 
duct of  her  farms.  She  encourages  the  minutiae  of  nature  knowl- 
edge. She  has  regard  to  the  ultimate  commercial  value  of  the  flower 
and  of  the  plant  that  is  good  for  food  or  beautiful  to  the  eye.  On  cer- 
tain days,  the  Jardin  des  Plantes,  in  Paris,  is  used  as  a  place  for 
botanical  study  by  the  school  children  of  the  city,  but,  besides  this, 
gardening  is  practically  taught  in  28,000  primary  and  elementry 
schools,  each  of  which  has  a  garden  attached  to  it,  and  is  under  the 
care  of  a  master  capable  of  imparting  a  knowledge  of  the  first  prin- 
ciples of  horticulture.  Tbroughout  the  southern  part  of  France,  the 
traveler  sees  everywhere  the  evidence  of  special  aesthetic  training  in 
cultivated  tracts  of  ground,  free  to  the  children  for  study  and  open 
to  the  public  at  stated  hours  for  pleasure. 

Germany,  with  her  compact  organization,  has  not  lost  sight  of  this 
important  point  in  her  vast  training  system.  It  is  in  this  way  that 
the  youngest  school  child  becomes  impressed  with  the  beauty  and 
order  of  nature,  of  thrift,  of  the  economical  use  of  land.  It  is  the 
pride  of  the  German  farmer  to  point  to  the  charming  outlines  of  the 
landscape,  where  level  highways  and  well-kept  grounds  speak  of 
industry,  cleanliness  and  economy. 

Experiments  have  been  made  to  introduce  a  similar  course  in  vari- 
ous places  in  this  country.  The  wonder  is  that  it  is  not  universal, 
especially  in  the  agricultural  "States.  Volumes  might  be  written  to 
express  a  small  part  of  what'it  would  do  in  enhancing  interest  in 
country  surroundings,  aside  from  its  educational  value. 

In  March,  1890,  as  a  result  of  the  reading  of  a  paper,  entitled  "Hor- 
ticultural Education  for  Children,"  before  the  Massachusetts  Horti- 
cultural Society,  a  school  garden  was  established  in  connection  with 
one  of  the  Boston  grammar  schools.  A  committee  of  the  society 
promised  the  necessary  pecuniary  support.  In  presenting  the 
claims  of  school  garden  work,  the  head  of  the  committee  said:  "We 
desire  to  emphasize  the  true  idea  of    a  school  garden.     Growing 


59 

plants  from  the  first  sign  of  germination  to  the  full  perfection  of 
blossom  and  fruit,  and  edible  roots  in  all  stages,  give  constant  oppor- 
tunity for  study." 

Of  plants  suitable  for  educational  purposes,  the  decision  was:  "Or- 
namental plants,  or  those  commonly  cultivated  in  flow^er  gardens, 
will  not  stock  the  school  gardens  contemplated  by  the  committee. 
Native  wild  plants,  such  as  ferns,  grasses,  asters,  golden  rods,  violets, 
native  shrubs  and  economic  plants,  such  as  grains,  vegetable  roots 
and  leguminous  and  cucurbitaceous  plants  must  be  the  stock  of  the 
gardens." 

The  committee  appropriated  ten  dollars  to  start  the  garden.  A 
piece  of  ground  forty-eight  by  seventy-two  feet  in  the  back  of  the 
boys'  yards  of  the  George  Putnam  Grammar  School  was  found  the 
most  available.  A  few  teachers  offered  all  the  assistance  in  their 
power  to  carry  out  the  purposes  of  the  committee. 

It  is  impossible  here  to  give  a  connected  account  of  the  progress 
made,  but  one  visit  to  the  garden  will  convince  the  most  skeptical 
that  one  month's  study  of  this  kind  is  worth  a  year's  work  in  the 
same  study  with  only  the  aid  of  the  text-book.  At  present,  there  are 
more  than  one  hundred  and  fifty  different  species  of  native  wild 
plants  in  this  garden.  A  great  many  insects  have  been  observed 
upon  the  plants — beetles,  wasps,  flies,  moths  and  butterflies.  Soon 
the  garden  will  afford  the  pupils  their  only  oppoptunities  for  studying, 
describing,  drawing  and  painting  such  insects. 

Since  1891,  the  Massachusetts  Horticultural  Society  has  offered 
every  year  a  premium  of  fifteen  dollars  for  the  best  school  garden, 
in  connection  with  the  best  use  of  it.  This  garden  has  competed  with 
others,  and  won  the  premium  every  year. 

EDUCATIONAL  VALUE  OF  A  SCHOOL  GARDEN. 

Besides  the  opportunities  for  correlation,  it  gives  the  opportunity 
for  bringing  together  a  great  number  of  plants  to  be  classified  and  ar- 
ranged in  families,  genera  and  species.  The  reason  for  such  classifi- 
cation becomes  apparent  in  the  grouping  of  plants  similar  in  form, 
structure  and  habits.  What  cultivation  will  do  by  way  of  increas- 
ing the  vigor  of  plants  and  making  them  blossom  and  fruit  more 
freely  is  fully  illustrated  every  season. 

Tlie  school  garden  affords  by  far  the  best  means  for  the  cultivation 
of  the  powers  of  observation.  Pupils  find  excellent  forms  to  draw 
colors  to  imitate,  habits  to  describe  and  motives  to  use  in  decorative 
design.  They  find  something  to  take  care  of,  something  that  quickly 
responds  to  love's  labor,  and  as  interest  is  added  to  interest,  they  lay 
up  for  themselves  resources  for  happiness  that  should  be  the  heritage 
of  every  child. 


60 

Mr.  Hamilton  W.  Mabie,  in  his  Essays  on  Nature  and  Culture,  says: 
^^Once  in  a  while  some  discerning  man,  outside  of  the  regular  school 
interests,  sees  the  inconsistencies  of  educational  systems.  Rela- 
tionship with  nature  is  a  source  of  inexhausible  delight  and  en- 
richment; to  establish  it  ought  to  be  as  much  a  part  of  every  educa- 
tion as  the  teaching  of  the  rudiments  of  formal  knowledge;  and  it 
ought  to  be  as  great  a  reproach  to  a  man  not  to  be  able  to  read  the 
open  pages  of  the  world  about  him  as  not  to  be  able  to  read  the 
open  page  of  the  book  before  him." 

School  gardens  are  in  successful  operation  at  Medf ord,  at  Wenham 
and  at  other  points  in  Massachusetts;  at  Bath,  Maine,  and  at  various 
points  in  the  west. 

"In  1899  the  chairman  of  the  school  garden  committee  visited  a 
number  of  school  gardens  in  Germany.  Those  established  in  Poss- 
neck  and  Gera  were  particularly  interesting  on  account  of  their  size, 
complete  equipment,  etc.  Each  is  not  far  from  an  acre  in  area.  The 
pupils  of  eight  grades  work  in  the  garden  an  hour  a  day.  The  notes 
which  they  take  in  the  garden,  serve  as  a  basis  for  compositions  on 
the  various  kinds  of  work  connected  with  farm  life.  Fertilizing, 
rotation  of  crops,  the  effect  of  the  presence  or  absence  of  light,  heat 
or  moisture,  the  birds  and  insects  injurious  or  helpful  to  certain  kinds 
of  plants,  and  many  other  kindred  topics  are  written  upon.  As  a 
consequence,  the  Germans  are  expert  farmers.  A  considerable 
amount  of  such  work  in  connection  with  our  public  schools  in  the 
country  would  make  young  people  more  contented,  and  successful  in 
farming  and  keep  them  from  rushing  into  the  cities." 

As  showing  how  old  new  ideas  are,  it  may  be  interesting  to  add 
that  "the  old  Quaker,  Gc^orge  Fox,  in  1691,  willed  a  tract  of  land 
near  Philadelphia  for  a  play  ground  for  the  children  of  the  town  to 
play  on  and  for  a  garden  to  plant  with  physical  (medicinal)  plants, 
for  lads  and  lassies  to  know  simples,  and  learn  how  to  make  oils 
and  ointments." 


TOWNSHIP  SCHOOL.  LIBRARIES. 

To  one  unacquainted  with  rural  schools  as  they  most  often  exist, 
and  with  the  conditions  of  rural  life,  it  is  beyond  realization  how  the 
mental  requirements  for  growth  and  development  are  met.  There 
is  positive  intellectual  hunger  for  suitable  books  to  read  in  the  en- 
forced leisure  of  the  long  winter  evenings.  Newspapers  and  the 
cheap  and  sometimes  questionable  periodical  literature  are  seized 
upon  and  read  with  avidity,  but  there  are  many  who  long  to  have 
access  to  a  well-selected  library,  and  who  wisely  improve  such 
opportunities,  as  are  afforded  in  profusion  in  the  city  free  libraries 
and  reading  rooms. 


61 

School  libraries,  specially  selected  and  well  bound,  are  now  on  the 
market,  especially  adapted  for  country  schools,  and  for  a  trifling 
sum,  a  really  excellent  and  serAaceable  library  can  be  procured. 

SLOYD. 

This  feature  of  the  educational  system  of  Sweden,  has  been  profit- 
ably adopted  by  many  city  schools  and  private  institutions  for  cer- 
tain grades  and  kinds  of  pupils.  Working  from  models,  making 
rough  sketches  and  blue  prints,  with  all  the  different  processes 
characteristic  of  Sloyd  work,  would  prove  an  acceptable  addition  to 
the  ordinary  text-book  work  in  the  country  school.  The  country  boy 
is  early  accustomed  to  the  use  of  tools  and  implements,  and  he  would 
find  a  keen  delight  in  the  adaptation  of  this  system  to  his  natural 
deftness  in  making  things. 

INDUSTRIAL  EDUCATION. 

The  value  of  a  comprehensive  system  of  industrial  education  to  the 
country  child  is  absolutely  incalculable.  Simply  stated,  it  means 
readiness  for  its  future  calling,  fitness  for  special  work  in  whatever 
direction  natural  talent  or  taste  may  point,  saving  of  time  and  a 
higher  degree  of  excellence  in  further  education.  The  trained, -the 
practiced  hand,  the  mental  power  of  gauging  causes  and  effects,  of 
comparison,  of  drawing  an  inference,  of  looking  to  a  practical  result; 
what  amount  of  money,  putting  it  upon  the  lowest,  th^  pecuniary 
basis,  could  be  set  over  against  it. 

The  vast  manufacturing  and  commercial  interests  of  the  country 
are  calling  for  the  ready  hand  and  self-reliant  energy  of  the  speci- 
ally instructed  worker.  The  artistic  and  decorative  industries  are 
everywhere  raising  their  standard  of  thoroughness  in  execution  and 
in  the  conception  of  true  ideals  in  art.  The  powers  of  the  child  are 
never  so  satisfactory  as  in  early  youth,  when  the  impressionable 
brain  takes  note  of  lines  and  shadings,  full  of  meaning,  but  apt  to 
be  lost  to  the  more  mature  observer. 

So  the  pencil  and  the  brush  should  be  put  in  the  hand  of  the  country 
child  as  early  as  in  that  of  the  city  child.  The  developing  taste 
should  be  encouraged  from  its  lowest  beginnings.  The  different 
seasons  should  give  motives  for  plain  and  easy  designs  in  decorative 
combinations  or  in  simple  "picture  work."  The  fall  furnishes  ex- 
amples of  nature's  profuse  coloring.  Leaves,  twigs,  seed-pods  and 
fruits  should  not  be  neglected,  as  models,  and  for  advanced  classes  a 
succession  of  simple  forms  could  be  united  to  form  a  harmonious 
fiesign,  for  mural  or  surface  decoration.     Spring  and  summer  fur- 


62 

iiisli  numberless  attractive  studies  in  grasses  and  bending  bud  and 
full-blown  flower. 

In  many  New  England  country  schools,  such  a  system  prevails.  A 
little  time  is  taken  each  day  for  hand  training  in  its  various  depart- 
ments, and  when  the  child  leaves  the  threshhold  of  its  early  home 
it  is,  in  some  degree,  ready  for  a  wider  destiny. 

There  is  a  class  of  minds  to  which  the  classical  and  literary  train- 
ing in  the  best  high  school  is  not  suited.  Beyond  the  essential  re- 
quirements of  an  ordinary  education,  these  do  not  desire  to  go  and  it 
is  just  at  this  period  that  the  question  becomes  vital;  the  child  should 
be  allowed  to  give  up  or  to  enter  upon  a  course  of  further  training 
in  line  with  its  natural  ta^te  and  endowment. 


PHYSICAL  CULTURE. 

Too  little  attention  is  given  in  our  rural  schools  to  physical  culture. 
There  is  a  pre-supposed  conclusion  that  the  country  child  has  no 
need  of  special  training  in  this  direction.  Exercise  necessitated  by 
its  environment  and  the  tasks  on  the  farm  is  confounded  with  the 
idea  of  physical  iustruction  in  graceful  and  harmonious  muscular 
movements.  The  proper  manner  of  sitting  and  standing,  rhythmic 
lessons  in  marching  and  rising,  passing  each  other  and  a  regular  drill 
in  the  etiquette  of  personal  postures,  is  a  part  of  the  physical  educa- 
tion of  the  fortunately  placed  city  child,  giving  grace  and  manner, 
often  a  determining  influence. 


SPECIAL  OCCASIONS  IN  SCHOOL  LIFE. 

Country  children  have  fewer  opportunities  for  celebrating  national 
or  historic  events.  Such  events  properly  observed,  foster  patriotism, 
besides  possessing  a  large  educational  value  in  sending  the  pupil  to 
ransacking  the  stores  of  literature  in  embellishment  of  the  particular 
subject.  A  fraction  of  time  deducted  from  the  regular  routine  would 
be  useful  in  giving  breadth  and  scope  to  the  ideas  of  citizenship,  civic 
duties  and  the  value  of  manhood  to  a  country  or  State.  Washing- 
ton's and  Lincoln's  birthdays.  Arbor  Day,  Memorial  Day  and  Flag 
Day,  should  be  made  just  as  impressive  to  one  group  of  children  as 
another.  Such  exercises  stimulate  the  mind  to  self  activity  and  cul- 
tivate the  powers  of  heroic  imagination  and  true  conception  of  the 
ordinary  duties  of  life. 


63 


SOME  OUTGROWTHS  OF  A  WELL-ORGANIZED  CENTRAL 
SCHOOL  NOT  DIRECTLY  EDUCATIONAL. 


GOOD  ROADS. 

Good  roads  are  an  index  of  civilization,  and  as  such,  may  be  taken 
as  a  factor  in  the  estimate  of  remedies  for  the  preservation  of  the 
country.  It  makes  a  great  difference  to  the  former  whether  he 
travels  ten  miles  in  one  hour  or  in  three,  and  whether  his  team  can 
draw  two  tons  of  produce  or  half  a  ton. 

Good  roads  mean  accessibility,  and  upon  accessibility  depends  the 
value  of  the  farm.  But  good  roads  mean  much  more  than  the  price 
of  land  or  additional  labor  in  marketing  farm  products.  The  in- 
tellectual, moral  and  religious  conditions  of  the  rural  districts  are 
intimately  associated  with  the  roads.  The  schools  are  likely  to  be 
better,  the  social  life  is  elevated  and  the  church  is  better  attended 
and  exerts  a  wider  influence  where  roads  admit  of  easy  travel. 

That  the  maintaining  of  a  central  school  would  have  a  good  influ- 
ence upon  the  roads,  needs  no  argument  to  prove.  It  is  an  absolute 
necessity  as  a  safeguard  of  the  comfort  of  the  children  daily  passing 
to  and  fro  over  them.  The  carriers  likewise  would  be  interested,  for 
the  wear  and  tear  of  their  vehicles  and  security  of  their  incurred 
obligations.  From  many  letters  received  on  this  subject,  indications 
are  strong  that  the  improvement  of  roads  is  a  concomitant  of  con- 
solidation. 


LOCAL  INDUSTRIES. 

In  many  parts  of  rural  Pennsylvania,  there  are  opportunities  for 
establishing  local  industries  that  would  give  employment  to  a  number 
of  such,  as  from  inclination  or  ties  of  family,  would  prefer  to  stay  in 
their  rural  environment,  were  it  not  for  the  pressure  of  the  neces- 
sity to  earn  something  for  support.  The  agricultural  population  is 
necessarily  limited  to  those  who  find  employment  in  agriculture, 
unless  some  enterprising  spirit  ^'sees  a  chance"  and  succeeds  in 
building  up  an  industry  out  of  the  local  elements  found  there.  Many 
such  might  be  named.  They  will  occur  to  every  one  who  has  knowl- 
edge of  the  resources  of  this  State  in  mineral  deposits  and  other 
material  sources  not  yet  even  approximately  utilized.  Most  of  these 
special  industries  require  specially  trained  workers,  as  in  ceramics, 
pottery  and  tile  manufacture.     But  many  of  these  industries  referred 


61 

to,  employ  women.  Such  are  those  engaged  in  producing  the  lovely 
specimens  of  hand-painted  books  now  sought  after. 

The  art  ideals  of  Ruskin  and  Morris  are  working  their  due  effect 
in  the  beautiful  reproductions  of  the  illuminated  lettering,  and  quaint 
printing-forms  that  are  so  interesting  in  their  original  setting.  One 
of  these  has  been  formed  at  East  Aurora,  N.  Y.,  a  small  town  and 
of  no  especial  importance  until  this  industry  was  established  there  and 
gave  it  fame.  The  "Roycrofters,"  as  the  company  is  called,  says,  in 
one  place:  "Our  business  is  simply  to  give  artistic  employment  to  the 
people  in  the  village  or  immediate  vicinity,  and,  if  possible,  show 
them  that  the  country  is  just  as  desirable  a  place  to  live  in  as  the 
cities." 

One  who  visited  this  industry,  for  so  its  must  be  called,  writes  of 
it  in  this  wise:  "You  are  here  enacting  a  perfect  poem  of  labor, 
dedicated  to  the  muses  of  beauty  and  health.  A  rare  happiness  and 
serenity  result  from  this  linking  of  day  to  day  with  enforced  and 
gracious  industry.  Joy  is  lyric.  The  workman  who  sings  at  his 
bench  is  doing  his  work  well. 

"In  the  midst  of  a  material  civilization  that  subordinates  the  true 
nobility  of  life,  of  a  head-long  race  for  wealth  that  grinds  the  faces 
of  the  poor,  you  are  favored  to  set  here,  in  an  idyllic  frame,  the  picture 
of  an  antique  simplicity.  Let  the  world  roar  at  a  safe  distance — liere 
in  this  quiet  and  sheltered  haven  you  are  doing  a  task,  made  possible 
by  the  genius  of  one  man,  that  is  of  vastly  more  import  than  all  the 
hubbub  and  shouting  yonder.  You  are  as  a  voice  crying  in  the  wilder- 
ness; preaching  the  gospel,  I  would  say,  of  content  with  fair  and 
ordered  industry,  as  against  the  frantic  body-and-soul-  destroying 
slavery  that  is  miscalled  labor  elsewhere,  inculcating  by  your  modest 
example  the  preciousness  of  good  living,  the  consei*vation  of  physical, 
mental  and  spiritual  health." 

Other  similar  art  industries  are  connected  with  Miss  iStarr's  in- 
teresting work  along  the  same  line.  The  more  useful  and  practical 
of  the  women's  clubs  are  interesting  themselves  in  providing  schemes 
and  outlining  simple  plans  for  productive  work  among  the  women 
and  children  of  the  laboring  class  in  the  rural  districts. 

Such  plans  might  w^ell  be  propagated  as  an  offset  to  university 
settlements  in  the  city  and  which  have  such  a  powerful  uplifting  in- 
fluence. A  school,  uniting  and  drawing  out  the  latent  special  gifts  of 
many  who  are  all  unconscious  of  their  powers  and  of  the  opportunity 
that  is  ready  for  the  skilled  hand,  would  be  a  god-send  in  many  ways 
besides  those  indicated  in  the  curriculum  of  study. 

BACK  TO  THE  LAND  MOVEMENTS. 

In  New  Hampshire,  the  "Old  Home  Movement"  is  significant  Of 
the  trend  of  opinion  in  tliat  State  in  regard  to  the  reclaiming  of  the 
abandoned  farms. 


65 

The  movement  is  thoroughly  organized  and  is  making  headway 
under  the  leadership  of  State  officials  from  the  Governor  down,  and 
of  prominent  men  in  all  circles  of  intellectual  and  commercial  matters. 

The  Village  Improvement  Society,  has  for  its  ultimate  object  the 
rehabilitation  of  the  rural  districts  of  New  England. 

DENMARK'S  DESERTED  FARMS. 

From  a  leaflet  published  by  the  Howard  Association  in  London, 
England,  we  take  the  following: 

"Partly  by  State  aid  and  partly  by  private  enterprise,  2,000  square 
miles  of  waste  land  have  been  reclaimed  and  five-eighths  of  the 
national  territory  is  possessed  by  small  freeholders  and  peasants. 
Above  a  hundred  people's  high  schools  have  been  established,  where 
peasantry  and  w^orking  classes  of  ages  from  18  to  25  get  board  and 
education  for  10  s.  per  week. .  The  Danish  farmers  have  formed  co- 
operative societies  for  the  collection,  sale  and  export  of  their  pro- 
duce. Danish  university  and  college  students  have  instituted* 
throughout  the  rural  districts,  free  lectures,  evening  lessons  and  com- 
mittees for  promoting  popular  amusements.  In  almost  every  village 
a  public  hall  has  been  erected  for  recreation  and  social  gatherings. 
In  villages  where  the  high  school  has  obtained  influence,  neither" 
drinking,  gambling  nor  gross  breaches  of  morals  are  to  be  met  with, 
yet  the  villagers  are  fond  of  games,  dancing,  sports  and  other  recrea 
tions." 


APPENDIX. 


ABSTRACTS  OF  LAWS  RELATING  TO- CONSOLIDATION  AND  TRANSPOR- 
TATION IN  THE  STATES  PARTICULARLY  NAMED. 


MASSACHUSETTS. 

The  following  law  was  enacted  in  1869 : 

"Any  town  in  the  Commonwealth  may  raise  by  taxation  or  other- 
wise and  appropriate  money  to  be  expended  by  the  school  committee 
in  their  discretion  in  providing  for  the  conveyance  of  pupils  to  and 
from  the  public  schools." 
5 


66 

CONNECTICUT. 

Consolidation  of  School  District*. 
(Gen.  Stat.,  Title  xxxv,  Chapter  cxxxvi,  page  477.) 

Section. 

1.  Consolidation  by  vote  of  towns. 

2.  Vote  to  be  by  ballot  at  annual  meeting. 

3.  School  business  at  town  meetings. 

4.  Voting  list. 

5.  Names  of  persons  elected  to  be  returned  to  Secretary  of  State. 

6.  When  vote  of  consolidation  takes  effect. 

7.  Number  of  school  committee,  when  and  how  determined. 

8.  School  committee,  how  first  chosen. 

9.  Number  to  be  voted  for. 

10.  Classification. 

11.  Powers  and  duties  of  school  committee. 

12.  Property  and  duties  of  consolidated  districts. 
•   13.  Time  for  payment  of  tax  extended. 

14.  Proceedings  where  there  are  joint  districts. 

15.  Permanent  funds,  management  of. 

16.  School  libraries. 

17.  Notice  of  abolition  of  part  of  a  school  district, 

18.  An  abolished  district  may  settle  up  its  affairs. 

19.  Mode  of  paying  debts. 

20.  Collection  of  taxes  in  favor  of  districts. 

21.  Abandonment  of  union  system;  vote,  how  taken. 

22.  Town  to  be  reimbursed  for  improvements. 

23.  When  vote  to  re-establish  district  takes  effect. 

24.  Committee  of  consolidated  district  to  be  visitors  of  the  town,  on 

abandonment  of  town  system. 

25.  Taking  land  for  school  purposes. 

26.  Payment  of  school  expenses. 

27.  Distribution  of  school  money  to  towns  under  town  system. 

The  headings  of  the  different  sections  are  given  in  order  to  show 
how  comprehensive  this  act  is.  • 

Section  142.  ^'x\ny  town  may  abolish  all  the  school  districts  and 
parts  of  school  districts  within  its  limits  and  assume  and  maintain 
control  of  the  public  schools  therein,  subject  to  such  requirements  and 
restrictions  as  are  or  may  be  imposed  by  the  General  Assembly.     *     * 

Section  143.  '^Whenever  a  vote  shall  be  taken  in  any  town  in  refer- 
ence to  abolishing  school  districts  and  assuming  control  of  the  public 
schools  therein,  such  vote  shall  be  by  ballot,  at  an  annual  town  meet- 
ing, upon  notice  thereof  given  in  the  warning.  The  selectmen  shall 
provide  a  ballot  box  for  that  purpose,  marked  "Consolidation  of 
Districts."     Those  in  favor  of  such  consolidation  shall  deposit  in 


67 

said  box  a  ballot  with  the  word  "yes"  written  or  printed  thereon, 
and  those  opposed  shall  deposit  a  ballot  with  the  word  "no"  written 
or  printed  thereon.         »         ♦         « 

Section  198.  "Whenever  any  school  shall  be  discontinued  under 
the  provisions  of  sections  196  or  197  (reference  to  conditions  required 
for  abolishing  schools)  the  school  visitors  may  provide  transporta- 
tion to  and  from  school. 

Section  199.  "The  expenses  of  transportation,  when  approved  by 
the  board  of  visitors,  shall  be  paid  by  the  town  (township)  treasurer, 
upon  the  order  of  the  selectmen." 

RHODE  ISLAND. 

Section  8.  "The  school  committee  of  any  town  may  consolidate 
any  schools  the  average  number  belonging  of  each  of  which  is  less 
than  twelve,  for  the  purpose  of  establishing  a  graded  school;  and 
said  school  committee  shall  have  authority  to  provide,  in  their  dis- 
cretion, transportation  for  pupils  to  and  from  schools." 


NEW  HAMPSHIRE. 

The  law  of  New  Hampshire  does  not  make  it  obligatory  upon  the 
committee  to  convey  any  children  to  school,  it  is  permission  only. 


OHIO. 

AN  ACT 

To  provide  for  the  centralization  of  township  schools  and  provide  a 
high  school  for  the  same. 

Section  1.  For  the  purposes  of  this  act  the  word  "centralization" 
is  hereby  defined  as  a  sj^stem  of  schools  in  a  township  providing  for 
the  abolishment  of  all  sub-districts  and  the  conveyance  of  pupils  to 
one  or  more  central  schools. 

Section  2.  A  township  board  of  education  may  submit  the  question 
of  centralization,  and  upon  the  petition  of  not  less  than  one-fourth 
of  the  qualified  electors  of  such  township  district  must  submit  such 
question  to  a  vote  of  the  qualified  electors  of  such  township  district, 
and  if  more  votes  are  cast  in  favor  of  centralization  than  against  it, 
it  shall  become  the  duty  of  the  board  of  education,  &c.,  to  proceed 
at  once  to  the  centralization  of  schools  of  the  township  and  if  neces- 
sary, purchase  a  site  or  sites  and  erect  suitable  building  or  buildings 
thereon. 


68 

Section  3.  All  elections  ordered  by  a  board  of  education  in  pur- 
suance of  section  two  of  this  act  shall  be  held  at  the  usual  place  or 
places  "of  holding  township  elections,  at  a  regular  or  special  election 
as  may  be  determined  by  the  board,  and  notice  shall  be  given  and 
the  election  conducted  in  all  respects  as  provided  by  law  for  the 
election  of  township  officers,  and  the  ballots  shall  have  printed  there- 
on: ''For  centralization — Yes."     ''For  Centralization — No." 

iSection  4.  Should  the  board  of  education  deem  it  necessary  to  is- 
sue bonds  to  purchase  a  site  or  sites  or  erect  a  building  or  buildings 
for  the  purpose  of  such  centralization,  then  the  election  shall  be 
conducted  as  provided  in  section  three  of  this  act,  but  in  such  case 
the  ballots  shall  have  printed  thereon:  ''For  levying  a  tax  to  pur- 
chase   site  (or  sites)  and  erect  building  (or  buildings) 

for  the  centralization  of  schools,  at  a  cost  not  to  exceed  | .  Yes." 

''For  levying  a  tax  to  purchase site  (or  sites)  and  erect 

building  (or  buildings)  for  the  centralization  of  schools  at  a  cost  not 

to  exceed  | .     No."     And  if  more  votes  are  cast  in  favor  of 

levying  said  tax  for  said  purpose  than  against  said  proposition,  at 
such  election  it  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  said  board  of  education  and 
the  board  of  education  is  authorized  to  issue  bonds  and  sell  the  same 
as  provided  by  law  and  to  levy  a  special  tax  to  provide  for  the  pay- 
ment of  the  same,  together  with  interest  thereon;  provided  said  levy 
shall  not  in  any  one  year  exceed  five  mills  on  the  dollar  valuation, 
and  said  bonds  shall  not  bear  more  than  six  per  cent,  interest  and 
shall  not  be  sold  at  less  than  their  face  value. 

Section  5.  In  a  township  district  in  which  proceedings  have  been 
had  under  the  preceding  sections  of  this  act  and  the  vote  has  been 
favorable  for  centralization,  there  shall  be  an  election  held  on  the 
next  succeeding  first  Monday  of  April  for  the  election  of  a  board  of 
education,  consisting  of  five  members  elected  at  large  in  said  town- 
ship district,  one  of  whom  shall  serve  three  years,  two  for  two  years 
and  two  for  one  year,  and  two  members  shall  be  elected  annually 
thereafter  for  a  term  of  three  years,  except  every  third  year  but  one 
shall  be  elected  for  three  years.  Said  election  shall  be  held  at  the 
annual  voting  place  or  places  in  said  township  by  the  regular  election 
officers  and  shall  be  conducted  in  all  respects  as  provided  by  law 
for  the  election  of  township  officers:  Provided,  There  shall  be  a 
separate  ballot  box,  poll  books  and  tally  sheets,  and  said  election 
officers  shall  receive  no  extra  compensation  for  such  services. 

Section  6.  Upon  the  election,  qualification  and  organization  of  the 
board  of  education  provided  for  in  section  five  of  this  act,  the  board 
of  education  previously  existing  in  said  township  district  shall  cease 
to  exist  and  the  same  is  hereby  abolished  and  the  board  of  education 
provided  for  in  this  act  shall  be  considered  the  successor  of  the  former 
township  board. 


69 

Section  7.  The  clerk  of  the  township  shall  be  ex-offlclo  member 
of  the  board  of  education  provided  for  by  this  act  and  shall  be  clerk 
thereof;  the  treasurer  of  the  township  shall  be  ex-qfficio  treasurer 
of  the  board  of  education:  Provided,  That  in  all  other  respects  the 
law  governing  village  boards  of  education  shall  govern  and  control 
all  boards  of  education  organized  as  provided  by  this  act. 

Section  8.  Boards  of  education  in  township  districts  organized  as 
provided  for  by  this  act  are  required  to  maintain  and  support  a 
graded  course  of  instruction  and  may  include  a  high  school  course 
of  not  less  than  two  years;  they  are  also  required  to  furnish  trans- 
portation to  and  from  school,  to  all  pupils  living  more  than  three- 
fourths  of  a  mile  from  the  central  building,  said  distance  to  be  meas- 
ured from  the  enclosure  immediately  surrounding  their  residence  to 
the  school  house  property,  along  the  nearest  public  highway. 

Section  9.  This  act  shall  take  effect  and  be  in  force  from  and  after 
its  passage. 


PENNSYLVANIA. 

HIGH   SCHOOLS. 

Act  of  28th  June,  1895. 

AN  ACT 

To  regulate  the  establishment,  classification  and  maintenance  of  high 
schools,  the  distribution  of  appropriations  in  aid  of  high  schools, 
and  the  employment  of  teachers  in  high  schools  receiving  State  aid. 

Section  1.  Be  it  enacted,  &c.,  That  the  directors  or  controllers  of 
any  school  district  may  establish  a  public  high  school,  and  the  State 
Superintendent  of  Public  Instruction  shall  prescribe  a  uniform 
course  of  instruction  which  shall  be  taught  in  the  high  schools  of 
each  grade. 

iSection  2.  The  directors  of  two  or  more  townships  or  school  dis- 
tricts shall  have  power  to  establish  joint  high  schools,  and  the  ex- 
pense shall  be  paid  as  may  be  agreed  upon  by  the  directors  or  con- 
trollers of  said  districts,  who  shall  meet  jointly  so  often  as  may  be 
necessary  for  the  transaction  of  business  pertaining  to  the  joint  high 
schools  under  their  jurisdiction,  and  all  proceedings  in  relation 
thereto  shall  be  spread  at  large  upon  the  minutes  of  the  respective 
boards. 


70 

Section  3.  A  high  school  maintaining  four  years  of  study  beyond 
the  branches  of  learning  prescribed  to  be  taught  in  the  common 
schools  and  called  the  common  branches  shall  be  known  as  a  high 
school  of  the  first  grade;  a  high  school  maintaining  three  years  of 
study  beyond  the  common  branches  shall  be  known  as  a  high  school 
of  the  second  grade;  a  high  school  maintaining  two  years  of  study 
beyond  the  common  branches  shall  be  known  as  a  high  school  of 
the  third  grade:  Provided,  That  the  reviews  necessary  for  the  prose- 
cution of  high  school  studies  shall  not  be  excluded  from  the  estimate 
of  the  year's  study  beyond  the  common  branches. 

Section  4.  From  the  annual  appropriations  in  aid  of  high  schools, 
a  high  school  of  the  first  grade  shall  each  year  receive  a  sum  not 
exceeding  eight  hundred  dollars,  a  high  school  of  the  second  grade 
a  sum  not  exceeding  six  hundred  dollars;  a  high  school  of  the  third 
grade  a  sum  not  exceeding  four  hundred  dollars.  If  the  appropria- 
tion is  insufficient  to  pay  the  above  amounts  to  the  several  high 
schools,  then  the  appropriation  shall  be  distributed  to  the  schools 
of  the  respective  grades  in  such  a  manner  that  each  school  shall  re- 
ceive a  sum  proportional  to  the  number  of  years  of  advance  study 
maintained  in  its  courses  of  instruction:  Provided,  That  any  high 
school  established  at  the  fall  opening  of  the  school  year  beginning 
on  the  first  Monday  of  June,  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  ninety- 
five,  shall  be  paid  at  the  end  of  the  year  as  a  high  school  of  the  third 
grade. 

Section  5.  The  directors  or  controllers  of  every  district  receiving 
aid  in  accordance  with  section  four  of  this  act  shall  employ  for  said 
high  school  at  least  one  teacher,  legally  certified,  to  teach  book-keep- 
ing, civics,  general  history,  algebra,  geometry,  trigonometry,  includ- 
ing plane  surveying,  rhetoric,  English  literature,  Latin,  including 
CiBsar,  Virgil  and  Cicero  and  the  elements  of  physics,  chemistry, 
including  the  chemistry  of  soils,  botany,  geology  and  zoology,  in- 
cluding entomology,  and  no  teacher  shall  be  employed  to  teach  any 
branch  or  branches  of  learning  other  than  those  enumerated  in  his 
or  her  certificate. 

Section  6.  The  directors  or  controllers  of  every  district  establishing 
a  high  school  and  receiving  State  aid  in  support  of  said  high  school 
shall,  before  the  first  day  of  September  following  the  close  of  each 
school  year,  make  to  the  Superintendent  of  Public  Instruction  sworn 
statements,  giving  full  information  concerning  the  teachers,  classes 
and  courses  of  study  of  every  high  school  under  their  jurisdiction. 

Section  7.  High  schools  established  in  accordance  with  this  act 
of  Assembly  shall  be  under  the  supervision  of  the  city,  borough  or 
county  in  which  they  are  situated. 

Section  8.  The  courses  of  study  in  high  schools  receiving  State  aid 


71 

shall  be  subject  to  the  approval  of  the  Superintendent  of  Public  In- 
struction. 
Approved— The  28th  day  of  June,  A.  D.  1895  (P.  L.  page  413,  etc.). 

DANIEL  H.  HASTINGS. 


AN  ACT 


To  authorize  school  directors  and  controllers  to  provide  transporta- 
tion for  school  children,  at  the  expense  of  the  district,  to  the  public 
schools  of  the  district  in  which  they  reside,  or  to  the  schools  of 
neighboring  districts.  ,  .  - 

Section  1.  Be  it  enacted,  &c.,  That  from  and  after  the  passage  of 
this  act  the  school  directors  of  any  district,  by  the  affirmative  votes 
of  a  majority  of  the  board  duly  recorded  on  the  minutes,  may  provide 
transportation  for  the  children,  at  the  expense  of  their  respective  dis- 
tricts, to  and  from  any  school  in  the  district  in  which  the  children 
have  their  residence,  or  of  neighboring  districts:  Provided,  however, 
That  the  provisions  of  this  act  shall  apply  only  to  the  pupils  of 
schools,  which,  in  the  discretion  of  the  board  of  school  directors, 
have  been  closed  by  reason  of  small  attendance:  And  provided 
further.  That  it  shall  apply  only  to  pupils  that  have  a. greater  dis- 
tance to  travel  or  are  placed  at  greater  inconvenience  than  before 
such  schools  were  closed:  And  provided  further.  That  the  cost  of 
transportation  per  pupil  shall  not  exceed  the  cost  of  maintaing  per 
pupil  in  the  schools  thus  closed. 

iSection  2.  The  expense  incurred  providing  for  transportation  of 
school  children  under  this  act,  and  the  tuition  for  education  when 
admitted  to  the  schools  of  other  districts,  shall  be  paid  by  the  treas- 
urer of  the  district  in  which  the  children  have  their  place  of  resi- 
dence, upon  the  orders  of  the  school  board  of  directors;  and  no 
member  of  the  board  or  other  official  of  the  township,  borough  or 
school  district  shall  be  a  party  to  any  contract  or  agreement  with  the 
board,  or  receive  any  remuneration  for  services  rendered  to  the 
district  in  conveying  children  to  and  from  any  school. 

Approved— The  22d  day  of  June,  A.  D.  1897  (P.  L.  No.  149,  p.  181). 


COUKSE  OF  STUDY  OF  GUSTAYUS  PUBLIC  SCHOOLS. 


PRIMARY  DEPARTMENT. 

First  Year.     D  Primary. 

Reading — Chart,  primer.     Baldwin's  First  Year. 

Spelling — Words  from  lesson. 

Writing — Small  and  capital  letters.     Pencil. 

Numbers — Combinations  1  to  15. 

Language — Lessons  given  by  teacher. 

Physiology  and  Nature  Work — Oral.     See  special  courses. 

Second  Year.     C  Primary. 

Reading — Baldwin's  Second  Year  and  Supplementary. 
Spelling — Words  from  lesson. 
Waiting — Combinations  of  letters  (pen  or  pencil). 
Arithmetic — Milne's   Elements  to  page  132.     Omit  pages   9l*-93, 
100  101,113-118,132-137. 
Language — Lyte's  Elementary  English,  Part  I. 
Physiology  and  Nature  Work — Oral.     See  special  courses. 

Third  Year.     B  Primary. 

Reading — Baldwin's  Third  Year  and  Supplementary. 

Spelling — Patterson's  Word  Book  to  lesson  44. 

Writing — ^Barnes'  No.  1. 

Arithmetic — Milne's  Elements  to  page  132. 

Language — Lyte's  Elementary  English,  Part  XL 

Physiology  and  Nature  Work — Oral.     See  special  courses. 

Geography — Oral.     See  special  courses. 

Fourth   Year.     A  Primary. 

Reading — Baldwin's  Fourth  Year  and  Supplementary. 
Spelling — Patterson's  Word  Book.     To  lesson  92  and  review. 
Writing — Barnes'  No.  2. 

Arithmetic— Milne's  Elements  to  page  188.     Omit  Art.  190,  198. 
Dubb's  Mental,  easier  parts  to  page  47. 

Language — Lyte's  Elementary  English,  Part  III. 


73 

Physiology  and  Nature  Work — Oral.     See  special  courses. 
Geography — Natural  Elementary  to  page  71. 


GRAMMAR  DEPARTMENT. 

Fifth  Year.     D  Grammar. 

Reading.     Baldwin's  Fifth  Year  and  Supplementary. 
Spelling.     Patterson's  Word  Book  to  lesson  144. 
Writing.     Barnes'  No.  8. 

Arithmetic.  Mihie's  Elements  to  page  205  and  review.  Dubb's 
Mental.     Review  to  page  47,  advance  to  page  98. 

Language.     Lyte's  Elements  of  Grammar  to  page  109. 
Physiology  and  Nature  Work.     Oral.     See  special  courses. 
Geography.     Natural  Elementary,  completed. 

Sixth  Year.     C  Grammar. 

Reading.     Baldwin's  Sixth  Year  and  Supplementary. 

Spelling.  Patterson's  Word  Book.  Review  from  first.  Advance 
to  lesson  200. 

Writing.     Barnes'  No.  4. 

Arithmetic.  Milne's  Elements  review  and  completed.  Dubb's 
Mental  to  page  125. 

Language.     Lyte's  Elements  of  Grammar  to  Part  III. 

Physiology  and  Nature  Work.     Oral.     See  special  courses. 

Geography.     Natural  Advanced  to  page  61. 

Seventh  Year.     B  Grammar. 

Reading.     Baldwin's  Seventh  Year  and  Supplementary. 
Spelling.     Patterson's  Word  Book  to  lesson  280. 
Writing.     Barnes'  No.  5. 

Arithmetic.  Milne's  Standard  to  page  170.  Dubb's  Mental  re- 
viewed to  page  125. 

Language.     Lyte's  Elements  of  Grammar.     Part  III  and  reviewed. 
Physiology  and  Nature  W^ork.     Oral.     See  special  courses. 
Geography.     Natural  Advanced,  pages  62-111. 
History.     Eggles ton's  First  Book. 

Eighth  Year.     B  Grammar. 

Reading.     Baldwin's  Eighth  Year  and  Supplementary. 
Spelling.     Patterson's  Word  Book,  completed  and  reviewed. 


74 

Writing.     Barnes'  No.  6. 

Arithmetic.     Milne's    Standard,   pages    170-301.     Dubb's   Mental. 
Begin  page  125. 
Language.     Lyte's  Edvanced  to  page  226. 
Geography.     Natural  Advanced,  completed  and  reviewed. 
History.     McMaster's  to  page  205. 
Physiology.     Overton's  Intermediate. 
Nature  Work.     Keview  of  special  courses. 


HIGH  SCHOOL  DEPARTMENT. 

First  Year.     Freshman. 

Arithmetic.     Milne's  Standard.     Dubb's  Mental  completed. 
Language.     Lyte's  Advanced,  completed. 

History.     McMaster's,  completed.     Constitution  studied  briefly. 
Physiology.     Overton's  Advanced. 

Second  Year.     Sophomore. 

History.     Colby's  Outlines  of  General  History — ^thirty-two  weeks. 
Physical  Geography.     Guyot — thirty-two  weeks. 
Rhetoric.     Quackenbos — thirty-two  weeks". 
Civics.     McCleary — first  sixteen  weeks. 
Algebra.     Milne — last  sixteen  weeks. 

Third  Year.     Junior. 

Algebra.     Milne — thirty-two  weeks. 

Geometry,  Plane.     Milne — thirty-two  weeks. 

Latin.     Harkness'  Grammar  and  Reader — thirty-two  weeks. 

Literature.     Watkins  and  Brooks — last  twenty-four  weeks. 

Fourth  Year.     Senior. 

Physics.     Cooley's  Students'  Manual. 

Latin.     Caesar,  4  books.     Prose  Composition. 

Geometry,  Solid.     Milne — first  sixteen  weeks. 

Botany.     Wood — last  sixteen  weeks. 

Common  Branches.     Reviewed — thirty-two  weeks. 


Rhetorical  exercises  throughout  the  twelve  years. 


76 


SYLLABUS  OF  WORK  BY  GRADES. 


FIRST  YEAR. 

Reading. 

Baldwin's  Primer  and  First  Reader.  There  is  no  more  important 
brancli  taught  than  reading.  The  order  for  beginners  is:  the  object, 
the  idea,  the  spolien  word,  printed  word,  proper  pronounciation. 
Master  the  words  as  presented — first  as  a  whole,  second  as  to  phonics, 
third  as  to  letters.  Aim  to  make  the  child  independent  of  the  teacher. 
See  that  pupils  understand  what  they  read. 

Spelling. 
Spell  words  from  reader  and  review  often. 

Writing. 

Strive  to  keep  proper  form  before  the  child,  but  pay  little  attention 
to  position  and  movement. 

Numbers. 

Use  objects  to  give  ideas  of  numbers.  See  that  pupils  can  count, 
having  them  count  objects.  Teach  meaning  of  signs.  Teach  ob- 
jectively simple  fractional  parts  of  numbers  as  1-2,  1-3,  1-4,  2-3,  2-4, 
etc. 

Language. 

* 

Encourage  pupils  to  talk.  Have  stories  told  by  pupils  after  having 
heard  them  read.     Correct  improper  use  of  language. 

Physiology  and  Nature  Work. 
See  special  courses  for  this  and  following  years. 


SECOND  YEAR. 

Reading. 

Baldwin^s  Second  Year.  Notice  position  of  child.  Tone  of  voice 
loud  enongh  to  be  heard  distinctly.  Accurate  pronounciation.  Teach 
diacritical  marks.    Read  other  texts. 


76 

Spelling. 

Patterson's  American  Word  Book.    Spell  words  from  reader.    Spell 
both  oral  and  written. 

Writing. 
N.otice  position  more  than  movement. 

Arithmetic. 

Milne's  Elements.     Teach  reading  and  writing  of  numbers.     Tt^nch 
combinations  of  numbers. 

Language. 

Lyte's  Elementary  English.     Have  neat  and  accurate  work;  allow 
no  other. 


THIRD  YEAR. 

Reading. 

Baldwin's  Third  Year.  See  that  the  pupil  reads  in  a  natural 
matter.  Waste  no  time  in  allowing  the  pupils  to  correct  errors,  bui 
have  the  attention  of  the  class  at  all  times. 

Spelling. 

Patterson's  Word  Book.  Review  last  year's  work  and  study  care- 
fully new  words.     Oral  and  written  work. 

Writing. 

Pay  attention  to  form  of  letters.  Position  of  child,  body,  head,  feet, 
hands.  Position  of  pen,  paper.  Work  neatly  done.  One  page  a 
week. 

Arithmetic. 

White's  Elements.  Be  sure  the  pupils  understand  the  work  re- 
quired of  them.     Review  often. 

Language. 

Lyte's  Eleriientary  English.  Do  more  than  the  work  of  the  lMH)k. 
Have  some  original  work  by  pupils. 

Geography. 
See  special  courses. 


77  •     - 

FOURTH  YEAR. 

Reading. 

Baldwin's  Fourth  Year.  Watch  the  mechanical  side  of  reading 
as  well  as  the  thought  getting.  Test  the  pupils  to  see  if  they  under- 
stand what  is  read. 

Spelling. 

Patterson's  Word  Book.  Have  the  words  used  in  sentences  by 
pupils.     Be  sure  they  understand  the  use. 

Writing. 

Allow  only  neat  work.  Have  practice  paper  for  use  of  pupil  to 
supply  the  copy-book. 

Arithmetic. 

Milne's  Elements  and  Dubb's  Mental.  Have  mental  work  at  least 
one-third  of  time,  using  easier  parts  of  mental. 

Language. 

Lyte's  Elementary  English.  See  that  good  language  is  used  by 
pupils  at  all  times. 

Geography. 

Natural  Elementary.  Use  globe.  Make  a  compass.  Our  pupils 
all  face  nor,th,  which  will  be  a  greht  help  in  studying  the  map. 


FIFTH  YEAR. 

Reading. 

Baldwin's  Fifth  Year.  Teach  breathing  as  well  as  pronounciation. 
Clear,  distinct  voice.  Accent,  emphasis,  pitch,  force,  rate,  etc.  Re- 
view diacritical  marks. 

Spelling. 
Patterson's  Word  Book.     See  4th  year. 

Writing. 

Give  close  attention  to  position  and  movement.  Do  not  accept 
anything  but  neat  work. 


78 

Arithmetic. 

Milne's  Elements  and  Dubb's  Mental.     Use  much  time  in  teaching 
of  fractions.     Have  objects  before  pupils. 

Language. 

L^'^te's  Elements  of  &ammar.     See  that  pupils  can  not  only  give 
parts  of  speech,  but  that  they  can  use  them. 

Geography. 

Natural  Elementary.     Notice  pages  143, 144.     Draw  maps.    Where 
possible  touch  on  historical  subjects. 


SIXTH  YEAR. 

Beading. 

Baldwin's  Sixth  Year.  Follow  directions  given  before.  The  aver- 
age reader  falls  far  short  of  the  author's  meaning,  to  say  nothing  of 
his  feelings.     Question  in  every  way  on  the  lesson. 

Spelling. 
Patte.rson's  Word  Book.     Have  words  used  in  sentences  as  before. 

Writing. 
Watch  movement.     Neat  work. 

Arithmetic. 

Milne's  Elements  and  Dubb's  Mental.  Teach  tables  carefully  and 
see  that  pupils  know  of  what  they  are  talking.  Use  mental  work  if 
possible  corresponding  with  written  lessons. 

Language. 

Lyte's  Elements  of  Grammar.  Attention  may  be  called  in  a  kindly 
way  to  errors.     Teach  use  of  dictionary. 

Geography. 

Natural  Elementary.  \)n\\\  maps.  Teach  areas  by  comparison. 
Teach  productions  by  belts. 


79 

SEVENTH  YEAR. 

Reading. 
Baldwin's  Seventh  Year.     Follow  instructions  of  other  grades. 

Spelling. 
Patterson^s  Word  Book.     As  previous  year. 

Writing. 
Teach  movement.     Quickness  is  to  be  desired. 

Arithmetic. 

Milne's  Standard  and  Dubb's  Mental.  Take  nothing  of  pupil's 
knowledge  for  granted.     Test  upon  all  subjects. 

Language. 

Lyte's  Elements  of  Grammar.  Notice  carefully  the  reviews  called 
for  in  the  book. 

Geography. 

Natural  Advanced.  Use  the  globe.  We  have  one  in  reserve.  Let 
us  wear  this  one  out  by  use.  Use  books  of  reference.  Draw  maps. 
Use  the  pronouncing  vocabulary.     - 

History. 

Eggleston's  Primary.  Have  the  pupils  bring  in  additional  facts 
besides  those  found  in  the  book.  Dwell  upon  the  characters  men- 
tioned in  this  work. 


EIGHTH  YEAR. 

Reading. 

Baldwin's  Eighth  Year.  The  greatest  difficulty  experienced  by  the 
average  high  school  student  is  that  he  is  not  able  to  read.  He  can 
pronounce  fairly  well  the  words  in  the  book  before  him,  and  perhaps 
even  deliver  the  writing  of  another,  after  the  manner  of  an  alleged 
elocutionist,  but,  for  all  that  he  cannot  read.  To  read,  one  must 
think.  He  must  think  what  another  thought  and  as  he  thought  it. 
To  do  this,  one  must,  first  of  all,  understand  the  general  and  particular 
meanings  of  words.     He  must  understand  the  combinations  formed 


80^ 

when  words  are  put  together  in  sentences.  Unless  he  so  under- 
stands words  and  their  use,  he  certainly  cannot  expect  to  catch  the 
meaning  and  spirit  of  another  who  speaks  to  him  from  only  the 
printed  page. 

Pupils  should  be  able  to  read  before  they  reach  this  grade. 

However,  if  pupils  in  this  grade  have  not  mastered  even  the  me- 
chanical part  of  reading  which  belongs  to  a  much  earlier  period,  spend 
some  time  upon  this  elementary  work. 

If  pupils  are  lacking  in  their  knowledge  of  common  words,  spend 
much  time  on  this. 

Test  constantly  by  all  methods  known  to  the  teaching  profession 
to  see  whether  pupils  follow  the  thought. 

See  that  pupils  are  able  to  read  all  text  books  used  in  this  grade. 
Read  and  observe  what  has  been  outlined  in  all  previous  grades. 
Attention  should  be  given  to  silent  reading. 

Read  supplementary  texts  and  literature  provided. 

Aim  to  direct  the  home  reading  of  pupils,  (1)  by  ascertaining  what 
they  are  reading,  (2)  by, suggesting  indirectly  or  directly,  books  that 
are  worth  reading. 

Spelling. 
Patterson's  Word  Book.     Thoroughly  review  the  book. 

Writing. 
Follow  directions  of  previous  grades. 

Arithmetic. 
Milne's  Standard  and  Dubb's  Mental.     See  previous  grades. 

Geography. 

Natural  Advanced.  Draw  maps  of  Ohio  and  Trumbull  county. 
Study  history  of  both. 

History. 

McMaster's  History  of  the  United  States  to  the  Struggle  for  Com- 
mercial Independence,  pages  1-205. 

In  all  teaching  of  history  remember  that  cause  and  effect  are  in- 
separably joined  together.  If  you  teach  history  as  a  series  of  dis- 
connected happenings  it  will  mean  but  little,  and  what  is  taught  will 
soon  be  forgotten. 

Trace  every  effect  back  to  its  producing  cause,  and  history  is  found 
to  be  a  study  that  appeals  to  reason  as  well  as  to  memory.  It  will 
then  be  interesting,  and  ^That  which  interests  is  remembered." 


81 

Study  ill  detail  those  historic  cliaracters  who,  by  reason  of  a  strong 
personality,  or  force  of  character,  rise  above  the  general  level  of  man- 
kind. 

Physiology. 

Overton's  Intermediate.  Dwell  carefully  upon  the  practical  use  of 
physiology. 


SPECIAL  COURSES  OF  STUDY. 


ORAL  GEOGRAPHY  FOR  THIRD  YEAR  PUPILS. 

i — Directions,  compass,  north,  south,  east,  west;  right,  left,  front, 
back,  up,  down,  on,  over,  under,  in,  to,  towards. 

2 — Slate  map  of  table-top,  desk,  room.  Blackboard  map  of  same. 
Locate  objects  on  map  and  have  pupils  get  familiar  with  directions. 

3 — Develop  terms,  long,  wide,  thick,  high,  broad,  narrow.  Get  idea 
of  distance  in  inches,  of  foot,  yard,  mile. 

4 — Bound  school  rooms,  school  yards,  etc. 

5 — Map  of  township,  county. 

r>— Water,  still,  running;  why  running?  boats,  waterfall  (why  so 
called?).  Tell  of  Niagara,  Sault  Ste.  Marie,  etc.  Develop  spring, 
brook,  creek. 

7 — Islands,  peninsulas,  capes,  isthmus.  Have  children  find  all 
these  in  nature. 

8 — Soil;  sand,  clay,  gravel;  fertile  or  barren.  Rocks,  slate,  sand- 
stone, marble  (coal?). 

9 — Trees;  apple,  cherry,  hickory,  chestnut,  walnut,  buckeye,  maple, 
oak,  etc.     Leaves;  fruits;  apples,  cherry,  nuts,  cocoa,  etc. 

10 — Study  an  apple;  how  are  seeds  arranged?  etc.;  plum,  orange, 
lemon;  compare  them. 

11 — Grain  in  this  locality;  wheat,  oats,  rye,  corn,  use?    Rice,  etc. 

12 — Vegetables;  potatoes,  tomatoes,  cabbage,  peanuts.  What 
things  are  conducive  to  growth?     Sun,  light,  rain,  snow,  clouds. 

13 — Liquids;  water,  juices,  molasses  (sugar),  coffee,  tea,  poisons. 

14 — Plants  for  clothing;  flax,  cotton,  hemp;  silk  worm. 

15 — Animals;  domestic,  wild,  birds,  reptiles,  insects. 

16 — Occupations. 

17 — Races  of  men. 

18 — The  earth  a  sphere. 

19 — Motions  of  earth,  time,  seasons,  clocks. 

20 — State,  officers,  government,  laws. 
6 


82 
PHYSIOLOGY. 


Assignment  of  Work  for  the  Primary  and  Grammar  Grades  upon  the  Subjects  of 
Physiology,  Hygiene,  and  the  Effects  of  Narcotics. 

In  compliance  with  the  state  law  the  effects  of  alcohol  and  nar- 
cotics are  to  be  taught  in  all  schools. 

First  Year.     D  Primary. 

Laws  of  Health. — Talks  on  cleanliness,  hands,  face,  person,  hair 
combed.  Teacher  sees  that  these  things  are  observed  by  all  pupils, 
and  that  it  does  not  end  in  "talks." 

Necessity  of  sufficient  and  proper  clothing.  Wet  feet  and  damp 
clothing.  Playing  out  doors  on  wet  days.  Draughts.  How  to  eat. 
Food  for  children.  Good  food — Bread,  milk,  vegetables.  Not  good 
— Strong  foods — rich  or  greasy  meats  and  gravies,  candles,  strong 
coffee  and  tea.     Poisonous — Alcoholic  drinks,  tobacco. 

Importance  of  much  sleep.  "Early  to  bed,"  etc.  Body,  relation 
and  name  of  parts;  hands,  right,  left;  fingers.  Head,  face,  neck, 
trunk,  legs,  feet,  toes. 

Compare  parts  of  human  body  with  those  of  animals. 

Use  of  each  part.     Wonderf  ulness  of  body.     "The  House  I  Live  In." 

Second  Year.     C  Primary. 

Review  work  of  first  grade. 

Bones. — Framework  of  body.  Why  necessary.  How  bones  are 
joined.     Three  kinds  of  joints — hinge,  ball  and  socket,  and  compound. 

Scholars  bring  some  sample  pieces  of  clean  bone.  Why  hard  and 
firm.  (Mineral  and  animal  matter.)  Result  if  both  ingredients  are 
not  there. 

Bones  of  children;  of  adults.  How  bones  grow.  How  bones  may 
be  misshaped — evil  of. 

Erect  position.  WTiy  important.  No  need  of  stoop-shoulders,  "As 
the  twig  is  bent,  the  tree's  inclined." 

Seats  in  room  must  allow  feet  of  all  pupils  to  rest  upon  the  floor. 
Why?  If  school  furniture  is  not  now  so  adjusted,  give  no  rest  to 
superintendent  and  board  of  education  until  it  is. 

Importance  of  exercise.     Narcotics  stunt  growth. 

Third  Year.     B  Primary. 

Review  work  of  first  and  second  grades. 

Muscles. — (Flesh),  the  covering  of  the  bones;  color,  red.  Teacher 
bring  before  the  class  a  piece  of  raw,  red  meat  (beef).  This  muscle 
of  the  beef  is  similar  to  ours. 


83 

Pick  to  pieces  a  piece  of  boiled  beef,  thereby  showing  bundles  of 
fibers.  Compare  to  cables  of  suspension  bridge.  Characteristic 
properties  of  muscular  tissue,  contractility.  Explain  as  a  piece  of 
rubber  (elastic)  stretches  out,  so  a  muscle  "draws  ups."  Illustrate 
with  biceps. 

Arrangement  of  muscles  in  pairs.  Why?  All  movements  by  con- 
traction of  some  muscles. 

Muscles  do  not  extend  to  fingers  and  toes.  Why?  What  takes 
their  place?  Use  of  tendons  and  chords,  extension  of  muscles.  Ap- 
pearance of  tendons,  strength.  Take  leg  of  chicken  to  class,  and 
show  the  use  of  tendon  in  leg.  Take  out  tendon.  Experiment  as 
to  amount  it  will  lift  in  pounds.  Compare  this  tendon  with  the 
branching  tendons  of  our  wrist,  hand  and  fingers.  How  muscles 
grow  strong. 

Need  of  exercise — not  exercise  to  the.  exhaustion  point.  Arm  of 
blacksmith.     Each  pupil  examine  muscles  of  arm. 

Flesh  we  eat,  name:  Ox,  beef;  calf,  veal;  sheep,  mutton;  <leer, 
venison;  fowl,  fish,  etc. 

Fourth  Year.     A  Primary. 

Review  work  of  previous  grades. 

The  Skin. — Covering  of  muscles;  appearance,  color,  smoothness. 
Cutis  and  cuticle. 

Skin  in  commerce.  Leather  in  shoes.  Skin  of  what  animal? 
Shoe  strings,  pocket  books,  drum  heads,  gloves,  etc. 

Use  of  our  skin;  to  beautify,  to  protect,  to  regulate  temperature, 
to  remove  waste  matter.  Organ  of  touch.  Pores,  use.  If  pores 
were  closed,  what?  Do  animals  sweat?  Horse?  Dog?  Outer  skin 
insensible. 

Sense  of  touch — one  of  the  five.  We  tell  much  by  feeling  objects — 
hard;  soft,  shape.  The  eye  alone,  from  one  position,  could  not  tell 
a  sphere  from  a  circle,  a  cylinder  from  a  plane  surface.  Without 
touch  the  eye  would  be  very  imperfect.  Blind  child  restored  to  sight 
could  not  by  sight  tell  cat  from  dog  although  he  had  played  with  both 
oil  his  life.     Touch  with  the  blind. 

How  care  for  the  skin?  Cleanliness,  bathing.  Why?  Void 
draughts.  Skin  readily  absorbs  both  food  and  poison.  Danger  of 
cosmetics.     Narcotics. 

Fifth  Year.     D  Grammar. 

Review  work  of  previous  grades. 

Amplify  work  of  second  year  on  bones.  Use  chart.  Uses  of  bones 
in  commerce. 


84 

Digestion. — Use  of  lips,  tongue,  teeth,  mouth.  Teeth,  arrangement 
as  to  incisors  and  molars;  advantages  of  both  kinds. 

Lay  much  stress  upon  care  of  teeth. 

Chew  food  thoroughly.     Why? 

Passage  to  stomach.     Use  chart. 

Stomach,  where*?  Size?  Shape  when  full?  Empty?  Work  of 
stomach.  Eat  at  regular  periods,  not  between  meals.  Stomach 
needs  rest. 

What  to  eat  (see  any  good  physiology).  Food  now  read  to  enter 
blood.  Experiments  with  alcohol.  Is  alcohol  a  food?  Does  it  give 
strength?  What  drinks  contain  alcohol?  Effects  of  alcohol  upon 
the  stomach.  Use  chart.  Why  are  such  drinks  destructive  to  the 
physical,  intellectual  and  moral  nature? 

Practical  talks  on  how  to  prepare  food  for  the  table.  Do  not  go 
upon  the  supposition  that  children  learn  this  in  every  home.  They 
do  not.     Plain  talk  on  kitchen  economics. 

Sixth  Year.     0  Grammar. 

Review  work  of  previous  grades  to  whatever  extent  necessary. 

Amplify  work  of  third  year  on  muscles.     Use  chart. 

Circulation. — Organs;  heart,  arteries,  capillaries,  veins.  Use  chart. 
Heart,  what?  work,  chambers,  draw  on  board.  Dissect  heart  of 
beef.  Care  of  heart,  free  from  excitement,  violent  exercise,  too  long 
rope-skipping.  Tobacco.  Blood.  How  much  blood  in  average  hu- 
man body?  (18  lbs.)  What  is  the  pulse?  Where  felt?  What  does 
it  indicate?  Number  of  pulsations  per  minute.  Children  count 
pulse  sitting,  standing.  W^hat  is  a  blush?  Account  for  the  perpetual 
"blush"  on  the  nose  and  face  of  the  intemperate. 

What  i  ffect  has  alcohol  upon  the  temperature  of  the  body  (Lowers 
it.  Men  may  deny  this,  but  it  i«  a  fact.  The  thermometer  shows  it.) 
Effect  upon  the  circulation.  What  is  the  normal  temperature  of  the 
body?     How  ascertained?     Read  "The  Festal  Board." 

Respiration. — What  is  it?  Universality,  plants,  animals,  of  both 
land  and  sea. 

Organs,  (a)  air  passages — nasal  openings,  larynx,  trachea,  (wind- 
pipe), bronchial  tubes.  Use  chart,  (b)  Lung — Bring  a  lobe  of  the 
lungs  of  a  beef  to  class,  (c)  Diaphragm — talks  on  structure,  use  and 
care  of  various  parts.  H<.  w  to  breathe.  Give  school  breathing  exer- 
cises.    How  to  use  the  voice. 

Purposes  of  respiration — to  w^arm,  to  purify.  How?  Importance 
of  pure  air  in  school  room,  at  home,  in  sleeping  rooms,  churches,  etc. 
What  is  air?  Experiments  with  air  pump.  Composition  of  air. 
Oxygen.  Experiments  with  oxygen  gas.  Universality  of  this  ele- 
ment in  nature.     Experiments  with  carbonic  acid  gas  and  lime  water. 


85 

What  does  it  show?     Effects  of  alcohol  upon  the  lungs.     Kead  "The 
Worm  of  the  Still/'" 

Seventh  Year.     B  Grammar.    * 

Keyiew  work  of  previous  grades  to  whatever  extent  advisable. 

Nervous  System  and  Special  Senses. — (Touch,  taste,  smell,  sight, 
hf-aring.)  Brain,  where?  How  protected?  Size.  Structure.  Me- 
dulla oblongata,  spinal  cord,  nerves,  appearance  of  nerves.  Mys- 
teries and  peculiarities  of  the  brain  as  the  seat  of  intellect.  Prac- 
tical uses  of  reflex  action. 

Use  and  abuse  of  nervous  system.  What  weakens?  What 
strengthens?  EfLects  of  alcohol  and  tobacco  (especially  the  cigar- 
ette). Why  narcotics  are  worse  for  the  young.  Ounce  of  preven- 
tion worth  more  than  a  pound  of  cure.  Eight  formation  better  than 
reformation.  "Acts  form  habits,  habits  form  character,  character 
form  immortal  destiny.''  ♦ 

What  gives  us  touch,  taste,  smell?  Value  of  same  to  us.  Special 
cultivation  and  peculiarities  of. 

Sight,  eye,  structure.  Study  chart.  Lay  much  stress  upon  care 
of  eyes.  Dissect  eye  of  beef.  Light  should  come  from  left  and 
rear  in  school.  Light  surface  (glass  in  windows)  in  school  room 
should  be  to  floor  surface  as  one  to  five,  at  least  not  less  than  one  to 
six.     Have  pupils  find  ratio  in  their  school  room. 

Philosophy  of  hearing.  Speed  of  air  waves.  Seek  to  develop  self- 
control.  Cultivate  no  hot-bed  growth  of  virtues  which  will  wither 
and  die  in  the  presence  of  temptation,  or  be  contaminated  when 
confronted  by  vice.     We  want  stalwart  manhood  and  womanhood. 

1)0  not  try  to  merely  point,  but  to  lead  pupils  to  that  purity  and 
strength  of  life  where  improper  sights  and  sounds  "Will  die  upon  the 
eye  and  ear,  no  inward  answer  gaining." 


NATURE  WORK  FOR  ELEMENTARY  GRADES. 

Following  is  the  assignment  of  Nature  Work  for  the  Primary  and 
Grammar  Grades. 


Introductory. 

The  purpose  of  this  course  is  three-fold:  To  cultivate  the  powers 
of  observation  in  children  and  young  people,  to  import  useful  informa- 
tion, to  awaken  a  love  of  nature. 


86 

First  Year.     D  Primary. 

Observe  all  indications  of  returning  spring  in  (1)  melting  ice,  (2) 
warm  sun,  (3)  coming  of  birds,  (4)  appearance  of  ground,  (5)  milder 
air. 

All  life  locked  up  in  the  tree  or  below  ground  is  now  becoming 
visible  (1)  in  tiny  green  sprouts,  (2)  blade  of  grass,  (3)  buds. 

Bud-scales — What?  Where?  Why?  Lining  of  bud-scales,  soft, 
wooly,  covering  often  sticky,  wax,  why?  (Keep  out  snow,  rain  and 
cold.) 

Watch  unfolding  of  buds  of  maple,  lilac,  horse-chestnut. 

Position  of  buds,  terminal,  lateral.  Lateral  buds^ — opposite  or 
alternate.  Opposite  (pairs),  as  seen  in  lilac,  maple,  horse-chestnut. 
Alternate  (single),  as  in  elm,  oak,  hickory. 

Second  Year.     C  Primary. 

Review  work  of  first  grade. 
Leaf,  parts  (1)  petiole,  (2)  blade.     Petiole,  short,  long.     Observe  differ- 
ence in  petiole  of  maple,  oak,  elm.     Blade,  structure,  ribs,  veins,  vein- 
lets;  use  of  each  part.     Sap,  what?    Its  use.     How  reaches  leaf. 

Venation — netted- veined,  parallel- veined.  Netted-veined —  feather- 
veined,  radiate-veined  (maple  leaf).  Parallel-veined — corn.  Read 
"What  the  Leaf  said."  Give  each  pupil  grain  of  corn.  Observe 
each  grain  consists  of  two  parts:  embryo  and  albumen,  so  called.  Use 
of  each.     Amplify. 

Plant  corn  and  beans  in  box  in  school  rooms  two  weeks  before 
plants  are  needed.  Dig  up  a  few  grains  before  plant  appears.  Ex- 
amine. Talks  upon  germination.  Write  upon  blackboard  dates 
when  various  seeds  were  planted,  dates  when  young  plants  first 
ajjpear,  height  of  plant  when  one  week  old,  two  weeks. 

Parts  of  the  young  plant. 

Third  Y^ear.     B  Primary. 

Review  work  of  first  and  second  grades. 

Margins  of  leaves;  crenate  as  in  catnip,  serrate  (saw)  as  in  cherry 
and  apple,  dentate  (toothed)  as  in  dandelion.  Other  margins  not 
necessarily  named. 

Bii^e  of  leaf.     Apex;  pointed,  rounded. 

Shape  of  leaf;  lancelate  as  in  peach  leaf,  ovate  as  in  plum  cordate 
as  in  lilac  and  catnip.  Others.  Use  of  leaves  on  tree?  Amount  of 
leaf  surface  on  a  tree  is  very  great.  "The  Washington  Elm,"  at 
Cambridge^ — a  tree  of  no  extraordinary  size — was  some  years  esti- 
mated to  produce  a  crop  of  seven  millions  of  leaves,  exposing  a  sur- 
face of  200,000  square  feet,  or  about  five  acres  of  foliage.     (Teacher 


87 

explain  and  tell  school  extent  of  five  acres.     Also  how  many  school 
yards  like  yours  you  could  make  out  of  five  acres.) 

Fourth  Year.     A  Primary. 

Review  work  of  previous  grades. 

The  flower,  parts;  sepal,  calyx,  petal;  corolla,  stamens,  pistil,  pe- 
rianth. Let  pupils  bring  common  flowers  and  find  these  parts  until 
they  are  perfectly  familiar  with  them. 

Learn  names  and  peculiarities  of  common  flowers. 

Read  ''An  April  Day." 

Fifth  Year.     D  Grammar. 

Review  work  of  previous  grades. 

Read  ''The  Bluebell."     Moral  taught. 

Roots ;  tap-roots,  fibrous.  Use  to  tree  or  plant.  Edible  roots  (sub- 
terraneous stems),  potato,  turnip,  etc.  Amplify.  How  cultivate  all 
such  products  as  potatoes,  beets,  turnips,  rutabagaes,  etc.  Encour- 
age all  children  who  have  gardens  at  home  to  cultivate  one  plant 
or  small  spot  for  themselves.  Observe  changes  day  by  day,  and 
though  the  youthful  agriculturist  should  fail  as  to  products,  it  will 
be  a  successful  failure. 

Sap  of  many  trees  is  useful  to  man:  Hard  maple  gives  us  sugar; 
pine,  turpentine;  acacia,  gum  arable;  caout-chouc,  India  rubber.  Use 
of  the  above  articles. 

Sixth  Year.     0  Grammar. 

Review  work  of  previous  grades  to  whatever  extent  advisable. 

Study  trees,  value  of,  conditions  of  growth. 

Read  "Woodman  Spare  That  Tree." 

Learn  by  sight:  Maple,  oak,  willow,  walnut,  chestnut,  hickory, 
locust,  elm,  pine,  horse-chestnut,  sycamore,  apple,  cherry,  plum, 
quince,  peach.     Peculiarities  of  size,  shape;  growth  of  the  foregoing. 

Learn  by  sight  the  following  woods  as  they  would  come  from  the 
shop:  Pine,  oak,  walnut,  maple,  poplar. 

Lumbering  as  a  business.     Where?    How  conducted? 

Seventh  Year.     B  Grammar. 

Review  work  of  sixth  year,  any  other  found  advisable. 
Find  out  from  what  trees  came  all  the  wood  in  this  school  build 
ing,  including  furniture,  rules,  slate  frames,  etc. 

What  special  use  is  made  of  each  of  the  common  woods? 
Can  you  name  all  the  trees  on  the  play  ground? 


88 

Eighth  Year.     A  Grammar. 

Review  work  of  any  previous  grades,  so  far  as  found  advisable. 

Historic  trees:  Washington  Elm,  Charter  Oak,  etc. 

Trees  worshipped  by  Druids.  Read  up  on  the  Druids.  Celebrated 
trees  of  the  present  time:  Giant  trees  of  California;  banyan,  palms, 
cinchona  (why  so  named)? 

Read  "Landing  of  the  Pilgrims." 

What  kinds  of  trees  were  in  the  "dim  wood"  at  Plymouth?  An- 
they  there  yet? 


NATURE  WORK  FOR  ALL  GRADES. 

Fall  Term — For  all  grades,  with  whatever  modifications  are  neces 
sary  to  suit  the  age  and  attainments  of  pupils. 

Fruits — Note  different  covering  of  apple,  peach,  pear,  plum,  cherry. 
When  ripe?  W^hy  have  seeds?  Which  way  do  the  seems  in  an  apple 
point? 

Various  uses  made  of  fruits. 

Grains — Different  appearance  in  field — rye,  wheat,  oats,  buck- 
wheat, corn.  Order  of  ripening.  Bottle  samples  for  school.  Note 
covering  of  grains.  Use  of  grains.  Follow  processes  from  the  sow- 
ing to  the  using. 

Nuts-^Chestnut,  hickory-nut,  walnut,  butternut,  etc.  When  gath- 
ered? Bring  samples.  Bring  specimens  in  the  bur  or  shuck,  and 
with  leaves  attached  (if  obtainable).  Study  the  covering  and  observe 
how  nut  lies  within. 

Compare  covering  of  fruits,  grains,  nuts. 

Note  the  gradual  decadence  of  vegetation  and  signs  of  approaching 
winter.  Temperature,  atmosphere,  position  of  sun.  Birds,  animals 
(including  squirrel  and  caterpillar),  man. 

Note  the  beauty  of  the  autumn  leaves,  colors. 

Bring  in  leaves  picked  up  on  ground  and  tell  the  kind.  Make  c'Ihc 
tion.     Use  of  fallen  leaves. 

Late  flowers — chrysanthemum,  etc. 

Read  "The  Melancholy  Days  are  Come.'* 

Should  these  day  be  melancholy? 


ALUMNI. 


Class  of  '99,  Supt.  C.  W.  Harshman— Elsie  M.  Hayes,  Bernicc  E. 
Waters. 

Class  of  1900,  Supt.  C.  W.  Harshman— Alice  A.  Chambers,  L.  Claire 
Cowden,  Mary  Belle  Lane,  M.  Helen  Pel  ton,  C.  Florence  Shipman 
Jennie  I.  Tavlor,  Sadie  A.  Webb,  Bertha  D.  Wood. 


89 

TEXT  BOOKS  USED. 

Authors.                 Retail  Price. 

Readers,  Primer,    Baldwin,    |0  26 

Readers,  First  Year,    Baldwin,    21 

Readers,  Second  Year,  Baldwin,    29 

Readers,   Third  Year,    Baldwin,    33 

Readers,  Fourth  Year,  Baldwin,    33 

Readers,  Fifth  Year,  Baldwin,    33 

Readers,  Sixth  Year,   Baldwin,    33 

Readers,  Seventh  Year,    Baldwin,    38 

Readers,  Eighth  Year,  Baldwin,    38 

Speller,  American  Word  Book,   Patterson,     21 

Writing,  Number  1,  Barnes,    6 

W^riting,  Number  2,   Barnes,     6 

Writing,  Number  3,   Barnes,    6 

Writing,  Number  4,   Barnes,    6 

Writing,  Number  5,    Barnes,    6 

Writing,  Number  6,  Barnes,    6 

Arithmetic,  Mental  Complete,  Dubbs,    29 

Arithmetic,  Elements,   Milne,     26 

Arithmetic,   Standard,    Milne,  54 

Algebra,   High   School,    Milne,   83 

Geometry,   Milne,     1  04 

Language,  Elementary  English, Lyte,   29 

Grammar,   Elements, Lyte,   .^ 42 

Grammar,  Advanced,   Lyte,  .~ 62 

Geography,  Natural  Primary,  Redway  &  Hinman,   50 

Geography,  Natural  Advanced,  Ohio  Ed.,  Redway  &  Hinman, 1  04 

Geography,  Physical,   Guyot,     1  32 

History,  First  Book  U.  S.,  Eggleston,  50 

History,  U.   S.,   McMaster,   83 

History,  General,  Colby,  1  25 

Physiology,  Intermediate,  Overton,  42 

Physiology,   Advanced,    Overton, 66 

Natural  Philosophy,  Students  Manual,  Cooley,  83 

Botany,    Wood,  1  46 

Civics,  McCleary,    83 

Rhetoric,    Quackenbos,  83 

Latin  Grammar,  Short, Harkness,   66 

Latin  Reader,    Harkness,    73 

Latin,  Caesar,   Harper  &  Tolman, 99 

Literature,  American, Watkins,   29 

Literature,  English,   Brookes, 29 

Eclectic  English  Classics. 


(90) 


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